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PRINCETON, N. J. 


Harrison, T., 
Three hundred testimonies 


a favor of retto len and the 


BT 1101 .H373 1888 


3 
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38 


THREE HUNDRED TESTIMONIES 


IN FAVOR OF 


RELIGION AND THE BIBLE 
=i eeenaee MEN AND Seer aN : 


AS, 


Astronomers, Botanists, Chemists, Clergymen,- Educators, Geologists, 
Heathens, Heathens Converted, Historians, Infidels, Infidels Claimed 
as such, Infidels Converted, Jews, Jurists, Literary Writers, Mili- 
“tary Men, Musicians, Novelists, Royal Personages, Philoso- 
phers and Scientists, Physicians, Poets, Presidents of 

the United States, Statesmen (American), Statesmen 
(European), Travelers and Voyagers. 


By REV. T. HARRISON, A.M., D.D. 


CINCINNATI: 
ROBERT CLARKE & CO. 
. 1888. 


hgh Maeve COPY RIGNTED fa ork meee 


TOPICS INTRODUCED. 


Atheism, 118, 309, 344, 345, 475. 


Bible, 


“e 
se 


ini 
ce 
sé 


a reforming power, 85, 109, 130, 227, 244, 264, 295, 376, 378. 

a text book, 123, 364, 440. 

and love of nature, 299. 

and science, 6, 356, 361. 

benefits of, to individuals, 62, 77, 102, 115, 186, 200, 221, 256, 268, 270, 277, 
281, 282, 287, 291, 309, 341, 342, 347, 348, 370, 379, 395, 449, 454, 455, 463, 475. 

benefits to nations, 66, 72, 203, 288, 298, 347, 370, 404, 458. 

the best book, 57, 152, 228, 277, 312, 340, 348, 371, 403, 419, 434, 447. 

excellence of, 59, 80, 83, 89, 95, 112, 115, 211, 258, 260, 265, 269, 275, 276, 278, 
283, 302, 305, 334, 335, 347, 348, 854, 355, 363, 372, 379, 384, 388, 397, 409, 414, 
417, 446, 462. 481. 

preaching, 333. 

truth enduring, 31, 66, 86, 128, 146, 413. 

writers honest, 373. 


Brahminism, 292. 
Christ, Character of, 40, 47, 56, 187, 200, 205, 206. 210, 217, 248, 249, 278, 287, 288, 


ce 


299, 369. 
foretold by Socrates, 184. 
his crucifixion, 215. 
his religion, 13, 109, 123, 124, 128, 197, 212, 213, 220, 221, 314, 367, 385, 408, 418. 
his Sermon on the Mount, 214, 218, 468. 


Christian charity, 96. 

Christianity a reforming power, 48, 55, 56, 185, 187, 215, 226, 229, 281, 232, 233, 
234, 236, 237, 238, 239, 292, 310, 353. 

Cicero’s theology, 174. a 

Development, 100, 116. 

Devotion, 3881. 

Evolution, 280, 281. 

Future state, 203, 210, 407, 408, 421. 

God, Existence of, 179, 203, 208, 326, 406, 417. 

God in creation, 56, 64, 173, 174, 224, 362, 373, 393, 408. 

God in creation, Agency of, 6, 13, 22, 24, 29, 53, 67, 99, 132,.133, 148, 145, 148, 152, 
171, 351, 357, 358. 

Gospel complete, 86. 

Gospel, Truth of, 47, 275. 

Immortality of the Soul, 26, 177, 183, 201, 217, 220, 222, 275, 276, 287, 289, 388. 

Infidelity, 198, 242, 271, 283, 291, 369, 439, 441, 485, 

Law, 65. 

Law, The Moral, 245, 419, 448. 455. 


Light 


of nature, 36. 


Life, Middle state of, 202. 

Liberty, Abuse of, 70. _ 

Lord’s Prayer, 279, 305. = 
Man, his superiority, 141. 

Man, the end of creation, 98, 137, 

Materialism, 68, 103 

Miracles, 204, 


Topics Introduced. 


Mohammedanism, 146, 292. 
Mosaic Record, 148, 150, 164, 256. 
Mosaic Vision, Milfer’s, 159. 
Natural Theology, 78. 
Providence, 217, 400. 416, 430, 439, 442, 482. 
Providence in nature, 28, 175, 343, 460. : 
Providence in history, 190, 191, 192, 225, 252, 259, 400, 403, 437, 462. 
Pilgrim Fathers, 374. 
Platonic System, 180. 
Progression, is it to continue, 157. 
Reformation, The, 195, 288. 
Religion and astronomy, 2, 8, 16. 
civilization, 192, 261, 302. : 
“3 common law, 269. 
_ education, 103, 126, 129, 204, 287, 286, 329, 879, 412, 413, 422, 425, 435. 
oh government, 406, 411, 414, 415, 420, 421, 441, 470. 
bf knowledge, 3, 286, 380. 
a law of nations, 262, 427. 
law of nature, 250, 262. 
+ liberty, 131, 195, 203, 230, 468, 
* literature, 194, 196, 291. 
re morality, 4, 214, 292, 291, 300, 449, 
os philosophy, 7, 193, 310, 357, 358. 
reason, 252, 400. 
oe science, 54, 119, 121, 164, 165, 172, 329, 330, 331. 


the republic, 422, 423, 425, 426, 428, 435, 436, 438, 440, 446, 454, 456. 
eS essential, 345, 346, 424, 433, 448, 


Christian, its advantages to individuals, 27, 33, 65, 82, 87, 108, 208: 127, 


257, 266, 268, 274, 275, 282, 291, 329, 331, 364, 368, 371, 389, 392, 8 332, 447, 


449, 452, 457, 459, 468, 476. 


290, 291, 097, 827, 344, 378, 399, 402, 404, "406, 429, 441, 473. 
everduring, Al, 147, 190, 306. 


870, 374, 394, 397, 405, 407, 409, 420, 455, "464, "465, "483, 484, 485, 
its advantages to ‘nations, 126, 176, 181, 269, 325, 354, "401, "464, 
its excellence, 54, 278, 443. 
its mysteries, 34, 349, 


Republic, American, 82, 421. 

Resignation, 8, 228. 

Revelation and geology, 6, 7, 134, 135, 136, 144, 158, 166, 
Revelation and reason, 50, 355. 

Revolution, French, 69, 336, 401, 404, 471, 478. 
Shakspeare’s theology, 389. 

Skepticism, 105, 226, 376. 

Solar System, 1, 10. 

Seneca’s theology, 182. 

Sabbath, 256, 266, 426, 433. 

Unity of plan in creation, 18, 21, 22, 30, 101, 133, 167. 
Vice, 35, 298, 402. 

Virtue, 35, 298, 418, 


6s 


ae pie its advantages to nations, 74, 263, 266, 868, 443, 452, 459, 467, 
479, 
Christian, its ope excellence, 53, 93, 97, 114, 124, 199, 201, 216, 243, 


its advantages to individuals, 25, 224, 247, 279, 296, 330, 340, 342, 363, - 


PRHEHACE. 


Several years ago, when the compiler of the present 
work presided over a literary institution, he delivered, 
for the benefit of the students, a series of discourses on 
the evidences of Christianity. One of the collateral evi- 
dences introduced was the testimony of illustrious men 
in favor of the Christian religion. Of these testimonies 
he had quite a number, and recently the number has been 
largely increased. 

At times he has arranged some of these testimonies in 
the form of public lectures; and wherever delivered, 
urgent requests have been made for their publication, 
especially by ministers of the Gospel. These requests 
are at length complied with-in the presentation of the 
present volume. 

One great object aimed at in the preparation of the 
work was to refute the erroneous statement so frequently 
and so boastingly made by illiterate and uncandid infi- 
dels, that men of education and intelligence could not be 
believers in the Christian religion, or any thing that 
claimed to be supernatural. The array of illustrious 
names here presented must certainly satisfy every can- 
did reader that such a statement is as remote from the 
truth as darkness is from light. 

Another object is to satisfy honest inquirers after truth 
that scientific men do not see any real discrepancy be- 


tween science and the Bible. 
(iii) 


iv Preface. 


Another object is to furnish the public with an impor- 
tant kind of religious knowledge that could only be 
obtained by consulting an extensive library. The quo- 
tations selected are not mere expressions of opinion, but 
many of them are as beautiful and finished productions 
as can be found in the world’s literature, and furnish 
excellent reading for both old and young. 

Another object is to show that religion is absolutely 
necessary to the existence and well-being of society. 


This is admitted even by candid skeptics, as will be seen’ 


by several quotations in the work. One valuable feature 
of the work is the admissions of a number of intelligent 
infidels in regard to the value of the Christian religion 
as a moral system, and the confessions of several con- 
verted infidels after receiving the truth. 

Some of the quotations introduced in the work do not 
have a direct reference to the peculiar doctrines of 
Christianity ; yet they have a bearing on several of its 
essential truths, such as the being of God, a superintend- 
ing Providence, the immortality of the soul, and a future 
state of retribution—truths, sad to tell, that are ridiculed 
and even sneered at by pretended lovers of light and 
knowledge. 

That any one, with an intelligent mind, should deny 
the being of a God, seems strange. Such individuals 
have been rare; indeed, it is doubtful if one ever reaily 
existed. “The fool hath said in his heart, there is no 
God,” but certainly he never said it in his head. The 
simplest exercise of his reasoning powers would utterly 
forbid such a supposition. 

There is a class of individuals who call themselves 
agnostics. Their doctrine is, they know nothing about 


= oe a a 


Preface. Vv 


divine matters. They admit that there is an unseen 
force in the universe, by which all the operations of 
nature are carried on; of course they regard it as an 
unintelligent force. Of this one force, Dr. McCosh 
very justly observes, “It furnishes a more striking mani- 
festation than any thing known before of the One God.” 
His remarks as given in the present work are at once 
striking and beautiful. 

Then, there are other individuals who are forever talk- 
ing of the laws of nature. But can any one conceive of 
the existence of a law without a law-maker and a law- 
executor. To suppose the contrary, is to suppose an 
absurdity. This point is clearly presented in several of 
the following pages. 

There is a large amount of information given in the 
present work in reference to natural theology, as well as 
to revealed religion. ‘This was deemed necessary in 
order to lead the minds, particularly of the young, to a 
belief in the existence of a Supreme Being, who is the 
Creator and Preserver of all things. For if this doc- 
trine is once properly established in the mind, the infer- 
ence is irresistible that all things must have been created 
for some wise purpose; and that purpose can not be 
other than to glorify him and do his will. Then neces- 
sarily follows the important question, how can this best 
be done? Here Revelation steps in, and makes all clear 
as the light of a cloudless day. 

A few of the testimonies on natural religion are from 
pagan writers; and though some of the views they held 
were erroneous, yet it is a satisfaction to know that on; 
several important points they harmonize with the truths 
of the Bible. 


vi Preface. 


Considerable space is given to geologists, for the rea- 
son that some persons not very profound in knowledge 
have used this science freely and boldly in opposing the 
Mosaic record. It is a great satisfaction, however, to 
know that the leading geologists of Hurope and America 
have been firm believers in the Christian Scriptures. 

In the department of philosophers and scientists not 
many are given, as the testimonies of a large number of 
them will be found in the departments of astronomers, 
botanists, chemists, educators, geologists, and others. 

The testimonies of a number of clergymen are given. 
To some this may seem superfluous. Certain infidels, 
however, have made the uncharitable remark that they 
_ are influenced by mercenary considerations in what they 
say. Daniel Webster, one of the world’s greatest and 
profoundest reasoners, was of a different opinion. In 
his celebrated argument in the Girard Will case, in 1844, 
he said: ‘I take upon myself to say that in no country 
in the world, upon either continent, can there be found a 
‘body of ministers of the Gospel who perform so much 
service to men, in such a free spirit of self-denial, under 
so little encouragement from government of any kind, 
and under circumstances almost always much straitened, 
and often distressed, as the ministers of the Gospel in the 
United States, of all denominations. They form no part 
of an established order of religion; they constitute no 
hierarchy; they enjoy no peculiar privileges. And this 
body of clergymen has shown, to the honor of our coun- 
try and the admiration of the hierarchies of the Old 
World, that it is practicable in free governments to raise 
and sustain, by voluntary contributions alone, a body of 
clergymen which, for devotedness to their calling, for pu- 


: 


Preface. vii 


rity of life and character, for learning, intelligence, piety, 
and that wisdom which cometh from above, is inferior to 
none, and superior to most others. I hope that our 
learned men have done something for the honor of our 
literature abroad; I hope that the courts of justice and 
members of the bar have done something to elevate the 
character of the profession of law; I hope that the dis- 
cussions in Congress have done something to ameliorate 
the condition of the human race, to secure and strengthen 
the great charter of human rights, and to strengthen and 
advance the great principles of human liberty; but I 
contend that no literary efforts, no adjudications, no con- 
stitutional discussions, nothing that has been done or said 
in favor of the great interests of universal man, have done 
this country more credit, at home and abroad, than the 
establishment of our body of clergymen, their support by 
voluntary contributions, and the general excellence of 
their character, their piety, and learning.” 

Some of the testimonies are from individuals with 
whose opinions on other matters the reader may disagree, 
but inasmuch as they had made grand utterances in favor 
of religion in some form, it seemed but fair to give those 
utterances publicity. 

France has been regarded as the stronghold of infi- 
delity, and Germany of rationalism; and yet some of 
the most decided testimonies in favor of Christ and his 
religion are from illustrious individuals of both nations. 

The names of many illustrious individuals have not 
been introduced; the reason is, that the compiler has 
been in the habit, for several years, of writing down such 
testimonies as came under his notice, and at length they 
became so numerous and formed so large a volume that 


Vili Preface. 


he had to desist from making further additions. More- 
over, while numbers of illustrious individuals have writ- 
ten admirably on various religious subjects, they have 
not always written on the value and excellence of the 
Bible; at least, their testimonies, if written, were not 
met with by the compiler. 

Some difficulty has been experienced in making a 
proper classification of the writers quoted, as some of 
them distinguished themselves in more branches of 
knowledge than one. The testimony of each, however, 
is placed in the department of the branch most culti- 
vated, or where it seemed most suitable for the elucida- 
tion of truth. . 

The work, it is believed, will be of much service to 
ministers of the Gospel, especially to those just entering 
on their sacred office, in furnishing them with opinions, 
facts, and arguments, for the defense and elucidation of 
their noble cause. To confirm their divine teachings 
with the authority of great human names, as well as with 
the authority of God’s holy word, must certainly be an 
important desideratum. : 

It is also believed that it will be of great benefit to 
Christian parents, in enabling them to lay before the 
minds of their children the impressive fact that great 
and good men in different ages and in different nations 
have held religion and the Bible in the highest esteem. 

To Christians in general, it is hoped the present work 
will be beneficial, as it can not fail to strengthen (if pos- 
sible) their belief in the great system of Christianity, 
and, as a result, to inspire them with increased zeal in 
their efforts for its universal spread. | 

Perhaps some sincere deyoted Christians may think 


Preface. ix 


that more quotations having a direct bearing on religion 
itself, and fewer on its relations to science, should have 
been given, but it must be remembered that a great 
diversity of tastes exists in the public mind; also that 
the compiler, who has long been an educator, was par- 
ticularly anxious that the young, who, at the present day, 
are learning so much about science in our schools, should 
have their minds fully fortified against the infidel teach- 
ings of those who have only “a little philosophy ”’ which, 
as Lord Bacon says, “ inclineth men’s minds to atheism, 
while depth in philosophy bringeth men’s minds about to 
religion.” It is often said that the young are the hope 
of the church and of the world. If they can only be 
started right, the world will soon be right, and the great 
cause of truth universally triumphant. 


PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 


In every age of the world, and in every nation of the 
earth, there has invariably existed some peculiar mode or 
form of religion. The enlightened Jew and the ignorant 
Gentile, the refined Greek and the rude barbarian, have 
alike venerated the temple and the altar. And perhaps 
there never was a clearer and more self-evident truth 
propounded by human wisdom than that man is constitu- 
tionally religious; that is, there is a something in his 
very nature that impels him to religion in despite of the 
allurements of the world, the fascinations of sin, or the 
temptations of the evil one. 

These different systems or forms of religion, however, 
have been opposed to each other, both in their nature, 
their principles, and their mode of, operation. Some of 
them have sanctioned impurities and obscenities too gross 
to mention, and others have tolerated crimes and abomi- 
nations that are revolting to Christian civilization. 

This being the case, the question naturally arises, how 
shall we ascertain which is the true religion? This ques- 
tion, like all other great questions in which the moral 
interests of man are involved, is easy of solution to a 
truly enlightened and candid mind. The idea of relig- 
lon carries along with it the idea of a God; and the idea 
of a God carries along with it the idea of absolute and 
infinite perfection. Every system of religion, therefore, 


that does not harmonize with the idea of the absolute and 
(x) 


Preliminary Remarks. xi 


infinite perfection of God, is unworthy the name of 
religion, and ought to receive the marked and unquali- 
fied condemnation of every thinking and intelligent com- 
munity. 

Now, the pretended revelations of pagan nations have 
inculeated erroneous notions of God, and of the worship 
which ought to be paid to him. But the revelation of 
the Christian has assumed a higher and holier stand, and 
has proclaimed with a voice of Divine authority: “God 
is a Spirit, and they that worship him must worship him 
in spirit and in truth.’ A modern writer, Renan, who 
regards Jesus Christ as a superior moral teacher, though 
not an inspired messenger sent from heaven, remarks on 
this great truth uttered by the Savior: “On the day 
when he pronounced these words, he was indeed the Son 
of God. He, for the first time, gave utterance to the 
idea upon which shall rest the edifice of the everlasting 
religion. He founded the pure worship, of no age, of no 
clime, which shall be that of all lofty souls to the end of 
time. Not only was his religion, that day, the benign 
religion of humanity, but it was the absolute religion ; 
and if other planets have inhabitants endowed with rea- 
son and morality, their religion can not be different from 
that which Jesus proclaimed at Jacob’s well.” 

The sublime spirituality and the superior morai excel- 
lence of this great system of revealed truth, are pre- 
sented, in the following pages, by numbers of illustrious 
writers, with such clearness, force, and beauty, that all 
candid readers must be struck with admiration at the 
system itself, and inspired with love for its holy and 
benign principles; while the admissions of those writers 
who do not fully assent to “the truth as it is in Jesus,” 


xii Preliminary Remarks. 


certainly can not fail to produce more or less conviction 
in the minds of even careless readers, that the Christian 
religion is at least worthy of a serious consideration. 

In regard to the morality of the Christian system, 
while its adherents maintain that it is perfect, candid 
skeptics, likewise, readily admit the important fact that. 
such is actually the case. It may indeed be truthfully 
said. that the sun is not more replete with splendor, 
nor the rose with beauty, nor the violet with fragrance, 
than is the Inspired Volume with virtuous principles. It 
is true, some of the Bible characters are represented as 
guilty of serious wrongs, but nowhere is their conduct 
justified; on the contrary, it is severely reprehended. 
The prophets of the Old Testament are terrible in their 
denunciations of the sins of the Jews—God’s chosen 
people—and Jesus Christ himself uses the strongest pos- 
sible language in condemning the unrighteous deportment 
of the scribes and Pharisees—nominally Jewish religion- 
ists. The Bible is rather to be admired than otherwise 
for its honesty in recording the wrong deeds of a once 
upright man, and not passing them by in silence, or 
glossing them over with mild apologies. The Christian 
religion, it may be repeated, is a perfect system of 
morals; and Lord Bolingbroke, skeptic though he was, 
never uttered a grander truth than when he said: “The 
Gospel is in all cases one continued lesson of the 
strictest morality, of justice, of benevolence, and of 
universal charity.” Opinions, similar to this, will be 
found in abundance in the present volume from distin- 
guished individuals in every department of intelligent 
society. 

As the religion of the Bible inculeates the highest 


Preliminary Remarks. xii 


morality and the purest mode of worship, certainly all 
must see that it is the only efficient instrument for the true 
and complete reformation of the human race. This great 
and desirable object can never be attained by paganism, 
nor by Mohammedanism, but by the absolute religion of 
Him who is styled the Light of the World. Wherever 
this religion has been tried, it has always been-found to 
be a success. The superior civilization of modern Ku- 
rope and America is owing to its benign and purifying 
influence. Why, in these favored regions, are not infants, 
widows, or aged persons, immolated to gods, or aban- 
doned to suffering and want? Why is the moral power 
of woman equal, if not superior, to that of man; and 
why are polygamy and the promiscuous intercourse of 
the sexes everywhere denounced; and the purity and the 
sweetness of the marriage institution made a greater 
charm to social life than in former times? Why have we 
hospitals for the sick and the suffering, and homes for 
the aged and infirm, created by law? Why have we a 
system of universal education, making knowledge as free 
as the air we breathe, for the child of the poor man, as 
well as of the rich, and why have we institutions for 
giving that knowledge, even to the blind, the deaf, and 
the dumb? And, more still, why have we reform schools 
for boys that have sunk into the lowest depths of immo- 
rality and vice, and girls that have lost their native sense 
of virtue and honor? Why have we so admirable a 
jurisprudence, and so high a regard for personal rights 
and political privileges? Why have we such an utter 
detestation of servility and every species of oppression, » 
and such a resolute determination to maintain the dignity 
of labor and the welfare of the working classes? Why 


x17 Preliminary Remarks. 


are we making such splendid discoveries in science and 
such wonderful improvements in art? Why, in short, 
are we reaching a state of society that the statesmen and 
moralists of the renowned nations of antiquity never 
contemplated? Why? Because the religion of Him 
who illumines the mind and purifies the heart is at work 
more powerfully and extensively than ever. And, cites 
only we can increase our means, and agencies, and 
jnstrumentalities, in proportion to the demands of the 
mighty work that has to be done, the latter day glory 
will soon be ushered in—the world’s vast resources all be 
consecrated to God—humanity be regenerated and made 
happy—and the magnificent designs of the Almighty in 
creating and redeeming the world completely and sub- 
limely accomplished. 


THREE HUNDRED TESTIMONTES 


IN FAVOR OF 


RELIGION AND THE BIBLE. 


ASTRONOMERS. 


NICOLAS COPERNICUS. 


Copernicus was engaged, during the greater part of 
his life, in studying the movements of the planetary 
worlds, with a view to correcting some of the erroneous 
doctrines of astronomy which then prevailed; at length 
he announced the true solar system, which is now uni- 
versally accepted, and named after him, the Copernican 
system. Pythagoras, a Grecian philosopher, who lived 
five hundred years before Christ, had suggested it as the 
probable system, but he was unable to demonstrate it. 
When Copernicus had reached the grand’ truth, he spoke 
of himself as being an interpreter of nature, whom the 
Almighty had sent into the world after the lapse of fifty- 
five centuries. Dr. Young says: 


“An undevout astronomer is mad,” 


or rather insane. Copernicus was neither insane nor 
undeyout, but reverently he bowed at the footstool of the 
throne of Jehovah, acknowledging him as the author and 
upholder of the wonderful system of worlds which he 
had been inspired to interpret. en 


2 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


THOMAS DICK, LL.D. 


Few authors have had greater influence on the pub- 
lic mind than Dr. Thomas Dick. Some of his works 
have been translated into other languages, one even into 
the Chinese. Speaking of the science of astronomy, to 
which he was greatly devoted, he remarks, in his Chris- 
tian Philosopher : | 

“The objects around us in this sublunary sphere 
strikingly evince the superintendency, the wisdom, and 
benevolence of the Creator; but this: science demon- 
strates, beyond all other departments of human knowl- 
edge, the grandeur and magnificence of his operations; 
and raises the mind to sublimer views of his attributes 
than can be acquired by the contemplation of any other 
objects. A serious contemplation of the sublime objects 
which astronomy has explored must, therefore, have a 
tendency to inspire us with profound veneration of the 


eternal Jehovah—to humble us in the dust before his 


august presence—to excite admiration of his condescen- 
sion and grace in the work of redemption—to show us 
the littleness of this world, and the insignificance of 
those riches and honors to which ambitious men aspire 
with so much labor and anxiety of mind—to demonstrate 
the glory and magnificence of God’s universal kingdom— 
to convince us of the infinite sources of varied felicity 
which he has in his power to communicate to holy intel- 
ligences—to enliven our hopes of the splendors of that 


‘exceeding great and eternal weight of glory, which» 


will burst upon the spirits of good men when they pass 
from this region of mortality—and to induce us to as- 
pire with more lively ardor after that heavenly world 


ee 


Astronomers. 3 


where the glories of the Deity, and the magnificence of 
his works, will be more clearly unfolded.” 

Dr. Dick wrote on a variety of subjects, moral and re- 
ligious as well as scientific. In his Improvement of So- 
ciety, he thus speaks of the utility of general knowledge 
in relation to the study of Divine Revelation: 

“Of all the departments of knowledge to which the 
human mind can be directed, there is none of greater 
importance than that which exhibits the real character 
and condition of man asa moral agent, his relation to 
the Deity, his eternal destiny, the way in which he may 
be delivered from the effects of moral evil, and the wor- 
ship and service he owes to his Almighty Creator. On 
these and kindred topics, the Christian revelation affords 
the most clear and satisfactory information; and the de- 
tails which it furnishes on these subjects are of the 
highest moment, and deeply interesting to every inhab- 
itant of the globe. But ignorance, leagued with de- 
pravity and folly, has been the cause that the sacred 
oracles have so frequently been treated with indifference 
and contempt; and that those who have professed to rec- 
ognize them as the intimations of the will of the Deity 
have been prevented from studying them with intelli- 
gence, and contemplating the facts they exhibit in all 
their consequences and relations. 

‘In order to a profitable study of the doctrines, facts, 
and prophecies contained in the Bible, it is requisite, in 
the first place, that a deep and thorough conviction be 
produced in the mind, that they are indeed the revela- 
tions of heaven, addressed to man on earth to direct his 
views and conduct as an accountable agent, and a candi- 
date for immortality. From ignorance of the evidences 


4. Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


on which the truth of Christianity rests, multitudes of 
thoughtless mortals have been induced to reject its au- 
thority, and have glided down the stream of licentious 
pleasure, ‘sporting themselves with their own deceiv- 
ings,’ till they landed in wretchedness and ruin. The 
religion of the Bible requires only to be examined 
with care, and studied with humility and reverence, in 
order to produce a full conviction of its celestial origin; 
and wherever such dispositions are brought into contact 
with a calm and intelligent investigation of the evidences 
of revelation, and of the facts and doctrines it discloses, 
the mind will not only discern its superiority to every 
other system of religion, but will perceive the beauty 
and excellence of its discoveries, and the absolute ne- 
cessity of their being studied and promulgated in order 
to raise the human race from that degradation into 
which they have been so long immersed, and to promote 
the renovation of the moral world. And, those objec- 
tions and difficulties which previously perplexed and 
harassed the inquirer will gradually evanish as the mists 
of the morning before the orb of day.” | 

As a system of ethics, Dr. Dick eulogizes the Christian 
religion in language the most eloquent and convincing. 
He remarks: 

“ Christianity inculeates the purest and most compre- 
hensive system of morality. Its moral requisitions are 
all comprehended under the two following rules or prin- 
ciples, ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy 
heart,’ and ‘thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, 
which diverge into numberless ramifications. It could 
easily be shown, that these principles are sufficient to 
form the basis of a moral code for the whole intelligent 


Astronomers. 5 


creation, that they are calculated to unite the creature to 
the Creator, and all rational beings with one another, 
wherever they may exist throughout the boundless empire 
of the Almighty; and that peace, order, and happiness 
would be the invariable and necessary results wherever 
their influence extended. If the love of God reigned 
supreme in every heart, there would be no superstition 
or idolatry in the universe, nor any of the crimes and 
abominations with which they have been accompanied in 
our world,—no blasphemy or profanation of the name 
of Jehovah,—no perjury, hypocrisy, arrogance, pride, 
ingratitude, nor murmurings under the allotments of 
Divine Providence. And, if every moral intelligence 
loved his fellow-creatures as himself, there would be no 
rivalships and antipathies between nations, and, conse- 
quently, no wars, devastation, nor carnage,—no tyranny, 
haughtiness, or oppression among the great, nor envy, 
discontent, or insubordination among the lower classes 
of society,—no systems of slavery, nor persecutions on 
account of religious opinions,—no murders, thefts, rob- 
beries, or assassinations,—no treacherous friendships, 
nor fraud and deceit in commercial transactions,—no 
implacable resentments among friends and relatives, and 
no ingratitude or disobedience among children or ser- 
vants. On the other hand, meekness, long-suffering, 
gentleness, humility, temperance, fidelity, brotherly kind- 
ness, and sacred joy, would pervade every heart, and 
transform our world from a scene of contention and 
misery to a moral paradise. The comprehensive nature 
of these laws or principles, and their tendency to pro- 
duce universal order and happiness among all intelli- 


6 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


gences, form, therefore, a strong presumptive argument 
of their divine original.” 


JOHN F. W. HERSCHELL, D.C.L. 


Amongst the astronomical discoverers of the present 
century, Sir John Herschell stands pre-eminent. His 
explorations of the southern heavens, during several 
years’ residence at the Cape of Good Hope, and his 
numerous other scientific labors, gained him honorary 
distinction not only from the learned societies of Great 
Britain, but also from foreign academies. 

Speaking of the Bible, he says: ‘‘All human discov- 
eries seem to be made only for the purpose of confirming 
more and more strongly the truths contained in the Holy 
Scriptures.” 

After having devoted his life almost exclusively to the 
science of astronomy, watching the movements of the 
heavenly bodies, and investigating the laws which govern 
them, Herschell makes this important statement: “It is 
but reasonable to regard the force of gravitation as the 
direct or indirect result of a Consciousness or a Will 
existing somewhere.” : 

He also remarks,,in his Discourse on Natural Philoso- 
phy: ‘We would no way be understood to deny the 
constant exercise of this [God’s| direct power in main- 
taining the system of nature, or the ultimate emanation 
of every energy, which material agents exert, from his 
immediate will, acting in conformity with his own laws.” 

Speaking of the connection between geology and 
revelation, Herschell says: ‘“ There can not be two truths 
in contradiction to one another, and a man must have a 
mind fitted neither for scientific nor for religious truth, 


Astronomers. 7 


whose religion can be disturbed by geology, or whose 
geology can be distorted from its character of an induc- 
tive science by a determination to accommodate its 
results to preconceived interpretations of the Mosaic 
cosmogony.” 

Herschell thus speaks of the tendency and effect of 
philosophical studies: 

“Nothing can be more unfounded than the objection 
which has been taken, in limine [at the threshold], by 
persons well-meaning perhaps, certainly narrow-minded, 
against the study of natural philosophy, that it fosters in 
its cultivators an undue and overweening self-conceit, 
leads them to doubt of the immortality of the soul, and 
to scoff at revealed religion. Its natural effect, we may 
confidently assert, on every well-constituted mind, is, and 
must be, the direct contrary. No doubt the testimony 
of natural reason, on whatever exercised, must of neces- 
sity stop short of those truths which it is the object of 
revelation to make known; but while it places the exist- 
ence and principal attributes of a Deity on such grounds 
as to render doubt absurd and atheism ridiculous, it 
unquestionably opposes no natural or necessary obstacle 
to further progress; on the contrary, by cherishing as a 
vital principle an unbounded spirit of inquiry and 
ardency of expectation, it unfetters the mind from 
prejudices of every kind, and leaves it open and free to 
every impression of a higher nature which it is suscepti- 
ble of receiving, guarding only against enthusiasm and 
self-deception by a habit of strict investigation, but 
encouraging, rather than suppressing, every thing that 
can offer a prospect or a hope beyond the present obscure 


8 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


and unsatisfactory state. The character of the true 
philosopher is to hope all things not unreasonable.” 

Herschell’s views in regard to resignation to the Di- 
vine Will, are beautifully expressed in the following 
stanzas : 


“Throw thyself on thy God, nor mock him with feeble denial; 

Sure of his love, and oh! sure of his mercy at last, 

Bitter and deep though the draught, yet shun not the cup of 
thy trial, 

But in its healing effect, smile at its bitterness past. 


“ Pray for that holier cup while sweet with bitter lies blending, 

Tears in the cheerful eye, smiles on the sorrowing cheek, 

Death expiring in life, when the long-drawn struggle is ending: 

Triumph and joy to the strong, strength to the weary and 
weak,” 


- JEREMIAH HORROCKS. 


That the love of science and the religious sentiment 
may truly exist in the same individual is beautifully il- 
lustrated by the following account of the first transit of 
Venus ever known to have been seen by any human 
being, the event occurring on the fourth of December, 
1639. | 

“This phenomenon was first witnessed by Horrocks, a 
young gentleman about twenty-one years of age, living 
in an obscure village, fifteen miles north of Liverpool, 
England. The tables of Kepler, constructed upon the 
observations of Tycho Brahe, indicated a transit of Ve- 
nus in 1631, but none was observed. Horrocks, without - 
much assistance from books and instruments, set himself 
to inquire into the error of the tables, and found that 
such a phenomenon might be expected to happen in 
1639. He repeated his calculations during this interval, 


Astronomers. 9 


with all the carefulness and enthusiasm of a scholar am- 
bitious of being the first to predict and observe a celes- 
tial phenomenon, which, from the creation of the world, 
had never been witnessed. Confident of the result, he 
communicated his expected triumph to a confidential 
friend residing in Manchester, and desired him to watch 
for the event; and to take observations. So anxious was 
Horrocks not to fail of witnessing it himself, that he 
commenced his observations the day before it was ex- 
pected, and resumed them at the rising of the sun on 
the morrow. But the very hour when his calculations 
led him to expect the visible appearance of Venus on the 
sun’s disc, was also the appointed hour for the public 
worship of God on the holy Sabbath day. The delay of 
a few minutes might deprive him forever of an opportu- 
nity of observing the transit. If its very commence- 
ment were not noticed, clouds might intervene, and con- 
ceal it until the sun should set; and nearly a century 
and a half would elapse before another opportunity would 
occur. He had been waiting for the event with the 
most ardent anticipation for eight years, and the result 
promised much benefit to the science. Notwithstanding 
all this, Horrocks twice suspended his observations and 
twice repaired to the House of God, the Great Author 
of the bright works he delighted to contemplate. When 
his duty was thus performed, and he had returned to his 
chamber the second time, his love of science was grati- 
fied with full success, and he saw what no mortal eye 
had observed before. 

“Tf any thing can add interest to this incident, it is 
the modesty with which the young astronomer apologizes 
to the world for suspending his observations at all. ‘I 


10 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


observed it, says he, ‘from sunrise till nine o’clock, 
again a little before ten, and lastly at noon, and from 
one to two o'clock; the rest of the day being devoted to 
higher duties, which might not be neglected for these 
pastimes.’ ” | 

Horrocks gave an account of the phenomenon in a 
Latin treatise, entitled “‘ Venus in Soli Visa.” [Venus 


Seen on the Sun. | 


DIONYSIUS LARDNER, LL.D. 


Dr. Dionysius Lardner, Professor of Astronomy and 
Natural Philosophy in the University of London, Eng- 
land, in one of his lectures on Science and Art, thus dis- 
courses on a Plurality of Worlds, and the designs of the 
Great Creator. 

“When we walk forth on a serene night and direct our 
view to the aspect of the heavens, there are certain re- 
flections which will present themselves to every mind 
gifted with the slightest power of contemplation. Are 
those shining orbs which. so richly decorate the firma- 
ment peopled with creatures endowed like ourselves with 
reason to discover, with sense to love, and with imagina- 
tion to expand toward their limitless perfection the at- 
tributes of Him of ‘whose fingers the heavens are the 
work?’ Has He who ‘made man lower than the angels 
to crown him,’ with the glory of discovering that light in 
which he has ‘decked himself as with a garment,’ also 
made other creatures with like powers and like destinies ; 
with dominion over the works of his hands, and having 
all things ‘put in subjection under his feet?’ And are 
those resplendent globes which roll in silent majesty 
through the measureless abysses of space, the dwellings 


Astronomers. apt! 


of such beings? ‘These are questions which will be 
asked, and which will be answered. These are inquiries 
against which neither the urgency of business nor the 
allurements of pleasure can block up the avenues of the 
mind. These are questions that have been asked, and 
that will continue to be asked, by all who view the earth 
as an individual of that little cluster of worlds called the 
solar system.” 

After speaking of the limited powers of the telescope, 
he remarks: “Although science has not given direct 
answers to these questions, it has supplied a body of 
circumstantial evidence bearing upon them of an ex- 
tremely interesting nature. Modern discovery has col- 
lected together a mass of facts connected with the position 
and motions, the physical character and conditions, and 
the parts played in the solar system by the several globes 
of which that system is composed, which forms a body 
of analogies bearing on this inquiry, even more cogent 
and convincing than the proofs on the strength of which 
we daily dispose of the property and lives of our fellow- 
citizens, and hazard our own. 

“Tn considering the earth as a dwelling-place, suited 
to man and to the creatures which it has pleased his 
Maker to place in subjection to him, there is a mutual 
fitness and adaptation observable among a multitude of 
arrangements which can not be traced to, and which 
indeed obviously can not arise from, any general mechan- 
ical law by which the motions and changes of mere ma- 
terial masses are observed to be governed. It is in these 
conveniences and luxuries with which our dwelling has 
been so considerately furnished, that we see the benefi- 
cent intentions of its Creator more immediately mani- 


12 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


fested, than by any great physical or mechanical laws, 
however important or imposing. If having a due 
knowledge of our natural necessities—of our appetites 
and passions—of our susceptibilities of pleasure and 
pain—in fine, of our physical organization,—we were for 
the first time introduced to this glorious earth with its 
balmy atmosphere—its pure and translucent waters—the 
life and beauty of its animal and vegetable kingdoms— 
with its attraction upon the matter of our own bodies, 
just sufficiently great to give them the requisite stability, 
and yet not so great as to deprive them of the power of 
free and rapid motion—with its intervals of light and 
darkness, giving an alternation of labor and rest nicely 
corresponding with our muscular power—vwith its grate- 
ful succession of seasons, and its moderate extremes of 
temperature, so justly suited to our organization; with 
all this fitness before us, could we hesitate to infer that 
such a place must have been provided expressly for our 
habitation? If, then, the discoveries of modern science, 
disclose to us in each planet, which, like our own, rolls 
in regulated periods round the sun, provisions in all 
respects similar—if they are proved to be habitations 
similarly built, ventilated, warmed, illuminated, and fur- - 
nished—supplied with the same alternations of light and 
darkness by the same expedient—with the same pleasant 
succession of seasons—the same geographical diversity 
of climates—the same agreeable distribution of land and 
water—can we doubt that such structures have been pro- 
vided as the abodes of beings in all respects resembling 
ourselves? The strong presumption raised by such 
proofs is converted into a moral certainty, when it is 
shown from physical analogies of irresistible force that 


Astronomers. 13 


such bodies are the creation of the same Hand that raised 
the round world, and launched it into space. Such, then, 
is the nature of the evidence which science affords on 
this interesting question.” - 

After elaborating these various points in a clear and 
logical manner, the final remark is made: ‘“ Such is, then, 
the brief view which we offer of that vast body of analog 
which leads the intelligent and reflecting mind that loves 
to see the most exalted attributes of Divine Power mani- 
fested throughout all parts of creation, to the conclusion 
that the planets are worlds, fulfilling in the economy of 
the universe the same functions, and are created by the 
same Divine. Hand, for the same moral purposes, and 
with the same destinies, as the earth.” 

Dr. Lardner, in his Outlines of History, speaking of 
Christ and his religion, says: “In the year of Rome 
753, while the world was enjoying peace under Augustus, 
and the ‘fullness of time’ was come, it pleased the 
Almighty to send forth his Son Jesus Christ, as the 
announcer of a religion more pure and holy than any he 
had yet given to man. His religion, though persecuted, 
gradually spread over the Roman world.” “The Christian 
religion, as given to man by its divine Author, was per- 
fect in truth and simplicity; but it was sent forth into a 
world in which error abounded, and the stream had 
hardly left the fountain when it became defiled with 
mundane impurities.” 


ORMSBY MCKNIGHT MITCHED, LL.D. 
Prof. O. M. Mitchel, whose scientific labors as an 
astronomer, and whose patriotic devotion to the interests 
of his country in her hour of danger, commanded uni- 


14 Testimonies in Lavor of Religion and the Bible. 


versal admiration, was a decided Christian. Through his 
efforts, the Cincinnati Observatory was erected; and the 
citizens uf New York invited him to deliver a course of 
lectures on this noble science with a view to the erection 
of an observatory in their city, also. His last lecture 
was on The Great Unfinished Problems of the Universe, 
at the close of which he uttered the following eloquent 
words: 

‘““We have passed from planet to planet, from sun to 
sun, from system to system. We have reached beyond 
the limits of this mighty stellar cluster with which we 
are allied. We have found other island universes sweep- 
ing through space. The great unfinished problem still 
remains,-—whence came this universe? Have all these 
stars which glitter in the heavens been shining from all 
eternity? Has our globe been rolling around the sun 
for ceaseless ages? Whence, whence this magnificent 
architecture, whose architraves rise in splendor before 
us in every direction? Is it all the work of chance? I 
answer, no! Itis not the work of chance. Who shall 
reveal to us the cosmogony of the universe by which we 
are surrounded? Is it the work of an Omnipotent 
Architect? If so, who is this August Being? Go with 
me to-night, in imagination, and stand with old Paul, the 
great Apostle, upon Mars’ Hill, and there look around 
you as he did. Here rises that magnificent building, the 
Parthenon, sacred to Minerva, the Goddess of Wisdom. 
There towers her colossal statue, rising in its majesty 
above the city of which she was the guardian—the first 
object to catch the rays of the rising, and the last to be 
kissed by the rays of the setting sun. There are the 
temples of all the gods; and there are the shrines of 


Astronomers. 15 


every divinity. And yet I tell you these gods and these 
divinities, though created under the inspiring fire of 
poetic fancy and Greek imagination, never reared this 
stupendous structure by which we are surrounded. ‘The 
Olympic Jove never built these heavens. The wisdom 
of Minerva never organized these magnificent systems. 
I say with Paul, ‘Gh, Athenians, in all things I find you 
too superstitious; for, in passing along your streets, J 
find an altar inscribed, To the Unknown God—Him 
whom ye ignorantly worship; and this is the God I 
declare unto you—the God that made heaven and earth, 
who dwells not in temples made with hands.’ No, here 
is the temple of our Divinity. Around us and above us 
rise sun and system, cluster and universe. And I doubt 
not that in every region of this vast empire of God, 
hymns of praise and anthems of glory are rising and 
reverberating from sun to sun and from system to sys- 
tem, heard by Omnipotence alone across immensity and 
through eternity.” 

After speaking of the vast extent of the universe, 
Prof. Mitchel remarks: “With thoughts thus expanded 
and touching the infinite—with the soul aglow with sub- 
limity—with aspirations exalted, let us turn to the lan- 
guage of the Bible, and learn whether it exalts the 
sensations and sentiments we feel, or crushes them by its 
weakness and impotency. Let the answer come from 
the Hebrew Psalmist, from the prophets, from the lan- 
euage of those grand apocalyptic visions of St. John. 
I care not where it be selected, it furnishes the only 
fitting vehicle to express the thoughts that overwhelm 
us, and we break out involuntarily in the language of 
God’s own inspiration.” 


16 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


Prof. Mitchel further remarks: “The most wonderful 
volume in existence is, beyond doubt, the Bible.” 


HENRY WHITE WARREN, D.D. 


Henry Warren, after graduating, became first an edu- 
cator, then pastor, and finally a bishop of the M. E. 
Church. He has traveled extensively in Europe and the 
East, and is the author of several popular works. His 
Recreations in Astronomy is one of the clearest, ablest, 
and most interesting books ever written on the subject. 

Speaking of the wonderful progress in astronomical 
knowledge, he remarks: “The heavens signify much 
more to us than to the Greeks. We revolve under a 
dome that investigation has infinitely enlarged from their 
estimate. Their little lights were turned by clumsy ma- 
chinery, held together by material connections. Our 
vast worlds are connected by a force so fine that it seems 
to pass out of the realm of the material into that of the 
spiritual. Animal ferocity or a human Hercules could 
image their idea of power; ours finds no symbol, but 
rises to the Almighty. Their heavens were full of fight- 
ing Orions, wild bulls, chained Andromedas, and devour- 
ing monsters; our;heavens are significant of harmony 
and unity; all worlds carried by one force, and all har- 
monized into perfect music. All their voices blend their 
various significations into a personal speaking, which 
says: ‘Hast thou not heard that the everlasting God, 
the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth 
not, neither is weary? There is no searching of his 
understanding. Lift up your eyes on high, and behold 
who hath created all these things, that brought out their 
host by number, that calleth them all by their names in 


> 


Astronomers. 17 


the greatness of his power; for that he is strong in 
power not one faileth.” 

Bishop Warren thus closes his chapter on the ultimate 
force: “Oreation is planned and inspired for the attain- 
ment of constantly rising results. The order is chaos, 
light, worlds, vegetable forms, animal life, then man. 
There is no reason to pause here. Thisis not perfection, 
nor even perpetuity. Original plans are not accom- 
plished, nor original force exhausted. In another world, 
free from sickness, sorrow, pain, and death, perfection 
of abode is offered. Perfection of inhabitant is neces- 
sary; and as the Creative Power is every-where present 
for the various uplifts and refinements of matter, it is 
every-where present with appropriate power for the up- 
lifting and refinement of mind and spirit.” 

Bishop Warren’s closing remarks on the movements of 
the stars are striking and beautiful. He says, “ These 
movements are not in fortuitous or chaotic ways, but are, 
doubtless, in accordance with some perfect plan. We 
have climbed up from revolving earth and moon to re- 
volving planets and sun, in order to understand how two 
or ten suns can revolve about a common center. Let us 
now leap to the grander idea that all the innumerable 
stars of a winter night not only can, but must revolve 
about some center of gravity. Men have been looking 
for a central sun of suns, and have not found it. None 
is needed. Two suns can balance about a point; all suns 
can swing about a common center. That one unmoving 
center may be that city more gorgeous than Eastern im- 
agination ever conceived, whose pavement is transparent 
gold, whose walls are precious stones, whose light is life, 
and where no dark, planetary bodies ever cast shadows. 


2 


18 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


There reigns the King and Lord of all, and ranged 
about are the far-off provinces of his material systems. 
They all move in his sight, and receive power from a 
Mind that never wearies.” 


BOTANISTS. 


ASA GRAY, M.D. 


Dr. Asa Gray, Professor in Harvard University, has 
published a number of popular works on Botany. They 
all show a thorough acquaintance with the science. From 
his Lessons in Botany and Vegetable Physiology, the 
following extracts are taken: 

“The hundred thousand kinds of plants are the living 
witnesses and illustrations of one and the same plan of 
Creative. Wisdom in the vegetable world. So that the 
study of any one plant, traced from the seed it springs 
from round to the seeds it produces, would illustrate the 
whole subject of vegetable life and growth.” 

“The Great Author of Nature, having designed plants 
upon one simple plan, just adapts this plan to all cases. 
So, whenever any special purpose is to be accomplished, 
no new instruments or organs are created for it, but one 
of the three general organs of the vegetable, root, stem, 
or leaf, is made to serve the purpose, and is adapted to 
it by taking some peculiar form.” 

“The vegetable kingdom exhibits a very great diver- 
sity. Between our largest and most highly-organized 
trees, such as a Magnolia or an Oak, and the simplest of 
plants, reduced to a single cell or sphere, much too 
minute to be visible to the naked eye, how wide the dif- 


Botanists. 19 


ference! Yet the extremes are connected by interme- 
diate grades of every sort, so as to leave no wide gap at 
any place; and not only so, but every grade, from the 
most complex to’ the most simple, is exhibited under a 
wide and most beautiful diversity of forms, all based 
upon the one plan of vegetation, and so connected and 
so answering to each other throughout as to convince the 
thoughtful botanist that all are parts of one system, 
works of one Hand, realizations in nature of the concep- 
tion of one Mind.” 

“ Animals depend absolutely upon vegetables for their 
being. The great object for which the All-wise Creator 
established the vegetable kingdom evidently is, that 
plants might stand on the surface of the earth between 
the mineral and the animal creations, and organize por- 
tions of the former for the sustenance of the latter.” 

Prof. Gray, in his simplified, yet interesting work, How 
Plants Grow, still further illustrates the Unity of the 
Divine Plan in Creation. He remarks: “The great 
variety which we observe among the herbs and shrubs 
and trees around us,—in foliage, flower, fruit, and every 
thing,—gives to vegetation one of its greatest charms. 
We should soon tire of plants or flowers made all after 
one exact pattern, however beautiful. We enjoy variety. 
But the botanist finds a higher interest in all these dif- 
ferences than any one else, because he discerns one 
simple plan running through all this diversity, and every- 
where repeated in different forms. He sees that in every 
plant there is root growing downwards, connecting the 
vegetable with the soil; stem rising into the light and 
air, and bearing leaves at regular places, and then blos- 
soms, and that the parts of one kind of blossom answer 


20 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


to those of another, only differing in shape; and he 
delights in observing how the tens of thousands of kinds 
of plants all harmonize with each other, like the parts of 
concerted music,—plainly showing that they were all 
contrived, as parts of one system, by one Divine Mind.” 


KARL VON LINNE. (LINNEUS.) 


Linneeus, one of the most distinguished of naturalists, 
showed great originality of mind in advancing the science 
of Botany. He published a variety of works on the 
subject, as Systema Nature, Fundamenta Botanica, 
Philosophia Botanica, and others. His reverence for 
the Author of Nature is shown in the fact that one day 
in his rambles he found a very splendid flower which he 
had never seen before, and that he immediately knelt 
down, and thanked the beneficent Creator for adorning 
the earth with such an array of beautiful flowers. 


ELIZABETH §S. PHELPS. 


Mrs. E. 8. Phelps, formerly Mrs. Lincoln, was author 
of Familiar Lectures on Botany and other books on 
various subjects. In her Botany for Beginners, speaking 
on the advantages of this interesting study, she remarks: 
“In Botany you study things which God has made. 
When examining plants with all their wonderful varie- 
ties, and observing the wise provision which is made for 
their growth, and the perfection of the seed, with the 
mutual relations of the various parts to each other, you 
must remember to give the praise to Him whose infinite 
mind directs and watches over the growth of the most 
humble plant, at the same time that he upholds the vast 
worlds which he has created, and which every moment 


Botanists. ot 


needs his sustaining care. Every motion we make, every 
breath we draw, and every pulsation of our hearts, show 
that this same care is over us too; for without it, we 
could no more live than we could have created our- 
selves.” 

JOHN RAY. 

John Ray, a great naturalist and popular writer on 
Botany and other subjects, thus speaks of the perfection 
of nature’s works, in his treatise on The Wisdom of God 
as manifested in Creation: 

‘Man is always mending and altering his works ; but 
nature observes not the same tenor, because her works 
are so perfect, that there is no place for amendments, 
nothing that can be reprehended. The most sagacious 
men in so many ages, have not been able to find any flaw 
in these divinely-contrived and formed machines; no blot 
or error in this great volume of the world, as if any 
thing had been an imperfect essay at the first; nothing 
that can be altered for the better; nothing but if it were 
altered would be marred. This could not have been, had 
man’s body been the work of chance, and not counsel 
and Providence. Why should there be constantly the 
same parts? Why should they retain constantly the same 
places? Nothing so contrary as constancy and chance.” 
‘Flow inerdible it is, that constancy in such a variety, 
such a multiplicity of parts, should be the result of 
chance! Neither yet can these works be the effects of 
Necessity or Fate; for then there would be the same 
constancy observed in the smaller as well as in the larger 
parts and vessels; whereas, there we see nature doth, as 
it were, sport itself, the minute ramifications of all the 
vessels, veins, arteries, and nerves, infinitely varying in 


22 = Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


individuals of the same species, so that they are not in 
any two alike.” 
JAMES E. SMITH. 

Sir James Edward Smith, the eminent botanist, in 
speaking of the principle of vegetable life, as indicating 
the existence of a Divine Agency, remarks, in his Intro- 
duction to Botany: “I humbly conceive that, if the 
human understanding can in any ease flatter itself with 
obtaining, in the natural world, a glimpse of the immedi- 
ate agency of the Deity, it is in the contemplation of 
this vital principle, which seems independent of material 
organizations, and an impulse of his own divine energy.” 


ALPHONSO WOOD. 


Prof. Alphonso Wood, President of Ohio Female 
College, is author of several works on Botany which 
have had a wide circulation. In his Outlines of the 
Structure, Physiology, and Classification of Plants, are 
the following excellent remarks : 

“Creative Wisdom never works in vain, nor merely in 
sport. Even the flying cloud, which now passes over the 
sun, has its mission; the forms which it assumes, and the 
colors, were each necessary and divinely appointed for 
that special purpose. The hills and valleys, which seem 
scattered in accidental confusion, have received each 
their contour and position by design, according to the 
ends foreseen. Consequently, each stone or mineral 
composing these hills was also the work of special de- 
sign, as to its magnitude, form, and place. 

“Much more in the living kingdoms of nature may we 
look for an adequate purpose and end accomplished by 
every movement and in every creature of the Divine 


Botanists. 23 


Hand. Each species is created and sustained to answer 
some worthy end in the vast plan; and hence no indi- 
vidual, animal or plant, is to be regarded in science as 
insignificant, inasmuch as the individual constitutes the 
species. Nor is accident or caprice to be found in the 
form of the leaf, or the color of the flower. There is for 
each a special reason or adaptation worthy of unerring 
Wisdom. The end or purpose, it is true, is not always 
as easily discerned as the form and fashion are. In a 
thousand instances the end is yet inscrutable. Never- 
theless, it is now a settled principle of science that there 
is an end—a purpose—a reason, for every form which we 
contemplate; and the adaptation to that end is as beau- 
tiful as the form itself. 

“In addition to this sequence of cause and effect in 
nature, disclosing the Infinite Designer in all things, as 
early taught by Paley in his Natural Theology, another 
class of principles more recently developed are shown by 
the author of Typical Forms, Dr. McCosh, to indicate 
with a still clearer light the thoughts of the Omniscient 
Mind in the operations of nature. The scientific world 
were slow to learn that the numerous organs of plants, 
so diversified in form and use, are all modeled from a 
single type, one radical form, and that form, the leaf! 
This interesting doctrine, now universally admitted, sheds 
a new light upon nature, making it all luminous with the 
Divine Presence. It brings the operations of the Great 
Architect almost within the grasp of human intelligence, ~ 
revealing the conceptions which occupied his mind before 
they were embodied in actual existence by his word. 

‘While we study the facts and the forms of the vege- 
table world, we should also aim to learn the purposes 


24 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bibdle. 


accomplished, and the great principles adopted in its crea- 
tion. We should also learn to recognize here the tokens, 
too long overlooked, which declare that nature sympa- 
thizes with humanity in the circumstances of the Fall, 
the Redemption, and the Life. Such study alone is 
adapted to acquaint us with the thoughts of the intelli- 
gent Creator, and to discipline aright the mind which 
was created in his image.” 


CHEMISTS. 


LE ROY 0. COOLEY, A.M. 
Prof. L. C. Cooley, of the New York State Normal 


School, and author of several scientific works, makes the 
following important remark in his Chemistry, on the Con- 
servation of Force: 

“Suppose the scientist should convince us that the 
‘forces of nature’ are all only different manifestations 
of motion; how constant, how complex, how variable, 
and yet how regular must these motions be! What 
keeps the molecules in continual, ever-changing, and har- 
monious motions? We never think without amusement 
of the old philosophy which taught the existence of a 
flat earth resting upon the back of a huge elephant, him- 
self standing upon turtles, but which left the turtles to 
support both themselves and their load; and yet, what 
better is this modern science, if, after adroitly building 
itself upon molecular motions, it leaves us to suppose 
that the molecules move themselves! The ‘forces of 
nature’ may be but different manifestations of molecular 


Chemists. 95 


motions; it may be possible for science to prove this; 
but when this is done, science can go no further in this 
direction; for ‘who by searching can find out God!’” 


SIR HUMPHREY DAVY 


Few names, in all science, shine with brighter luster 
than that of Sir Humphrey Davy. At the age of twenty- 
two, he was elected Professor of Chemistry in the Royal 
Institution, and subsequently President of the Royal So- 
ciety. As a lecturer, even before popular assemblies in 
London, his fame was unbounded. Moreover, his dis- 
coveries in science, and his inventions in art, have made 
his name familiar to the whole civilized world. After a 
life of great usefulness, his health began todecline. For 
its restoration, he traveled in Europe, during which he 
wrote his last work, Consolations in Travel, in which 
the religious tendency of his mind is beautifully devel- 
oped. The high estimation in which he held religion 
may be seen in the following extract from his work, Sal- 
monia : 

“T envy no quality of the mind or intellect in others— 
not genius, power, wit, or fancy—but if I could choose 
what would be most delightful, and I believe most useful 
‘9 me, I should prefer a firm religious belief to every 
other blessing; for it makes life a discipline of good- 
ness, creates new hopes when all earthly hopes vanish, 
and throws over the decay, the destruction of existence, 
the most gorgeous of all lights; awakens life even in 
death, and from corruption and decay calls up beauty 
and divinity; makes an instrument of torture and of 
shame the ladder of ascent to paradise; and, far above 


3 


26 Testimonies in Favor of Religion. and the Bible. 


all combinations of earthly hopes, calls up the most de- 
lightful visions of palms and amaranths, the gardens of 
the blessed; the security of everlasting joys, where the 
sensualist and skeptic view only gloom, decay, and an- 
nihilation.” 

The hostility of Sir Humphrey Davy to infidelity, and 
his belief in the Christian religion, were strengthened by 
his communings with nature and her varied wonders, as 
the following passage clearly shows: 

“The doctrine of the materialists was always, even in 
youth, a cold, heavy, dull, and insupportable doctrine to 
me, and necessarily tending to atheism. When I had 
heard, with disgust, in the dissecting rooms, the plan of 
the physiologist, of the gradual accretion of matter, and 
its becoming endowed with irritability, ripening into sen- 
sibility, and acquiring such organs as were necessary by 
its own inherent forces, and at last issuing into intellect- 
ual existence, a walk into the green fields or woods, by 
the banks of rivers, brought back my feelings from na- 
ture to God. I saw in all the powers of matter the in- 
struments of the Deity. The sunbeams, the breath of 
the zephyr, awakening animation in forms prepared by 
divine intelligence to receive it, the insensate seed, the 
slumbering eggs witich were to be vivified, appeared, like 
the new-born animal, works of a divine mind. I saw 
love as the creative principle in the material world, and 
this love only as a divine attribute. Then my own mind . 
I felt connected with new sensations and indefinite hopes— 
a thirst for immortality: the great names of other ages 
and of distant nations appeared to me to be still living 
around me, and even in the fancied movements of the he- 
roic and the great, I saw, as it were, the decrees of the in- 


Chemists. oF 


destructibility of mind. These feelings, though generally 
considered as poetical, yet, I think, offer a sound philo- 
sophical argument in favor of the immortality of the soul. 
The desire of glory, of honor, of immortal fame, and of 
constant knowledge, so usual in young persons of well- 
constituted minds, can not, I think, be other than symp- 
toms of the infinite and progressive nature of the intel- 
lect—hopes which, as they can not be gratified here, 
belong to a frame of mind suited to a nobler state of 
existence.” 

That the Christian religion exerted its divine influence 
on the refined nature of Sir Humphrey Davy,—that he 
realized in his own pure and lofty soul its hallowed enjoy- 
inents and immortal hopes, no one can doubt after read- 
ing the following inspired sentiments: 

‘Religion, whether natural or revealed, has always the 
same beneficial influence on the mind. In youth, in 
health and prosperity, it awakens feelings of gratitude 
and sublime love, and purifies at the same time that it 
exalts. But it is in misfortune, in sickness, in age, that 
its effects are most truly and beneficially felt; when sub- 
mission in faith and humble trust in the divine will, from 
duties become pleasures, undecaying sources of consola- 
tion. Then it creates powers which were believed to be 
extinct; and gives a freshness to the mind, which was 
supposed to have passed away forever, but which is now 
renovated as an immortal hope. ‘Then it is the Pharos, 
guiding the wave-tossed mariner to his home: or as the 
calm and beautiful still basins or fiords, surrounded by 
tranquil groves and pastoral meadows, to the Norwegian 
pilot escaping from a heavy storm in the North Sea; or, 
as the green and dewy spot, gushing with fountains, to 


28 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


the exhausted and thirsty traveler in the midst of the 
desert. Its influence outlives all earthly enjoyments, 
and becomes stronger as the organs decay and the frame 
dissolves. It appears as that evening star of light in 
the horizon of life, which, we are sure, is to become, in 
another season, a morning star; and it throws its radi- 
ance through the gloom and shadow of death.” 


WORTHINGTON HOOKER, M.D. 


Dr. W. Hooker, Professor in Yale College, and author 
of several scientific publications, in his work on Chem- 
istry, says: ‘The earth, with all its stability, has vast 
changes going on continually and every-where upon its 
surface, in which air and water, and heat and light, and 
electricity and chemical and vital agencies, are ever busy; 
and yet, extensive as these changes are, and accompanied 
with disturbance, conflict, and decay, the Creator, who 
seeth the end from the beginning, preserves amid it all a 
wonderful balancing and harmony, so that from age to 
age we see the impress which he put upon creation at the 
first, and bear witness that it is all ‘very good.’ ” 


BENJAMIN SILLIMAN. 


- Benjamin Silliman for many years distinguished him- 
self as an able professor of chemistry in Yale College, 
and as a popular lecturer on science. He founded and 
for a long time edited the American Journal of Sciences 
and Arts, and likewise published a valuable work on his 
favorite science. He thus beautifully expresses his rey- 
erence for the Divine Being: 

‘“¢T can truly declare that, in the study and exhibition 
of science to my pupils and fellow-men, I have never 


Chemists. 29 


forgotten to give all honor and glory to the Infinite 
Creator. Happy if I might be the honored interpreter 
of a portion of his works, and of the beautiful structure 
and beneficent laws discovered therein by the labors of 
many illustrious predecessors.” 


J. DORMAN STEELE, PH.D. 


Prof. J. Dorman Steele, author of several popular 
works on the sciences, thus speaks, in his Chemistry, on 
the Divine Agency in the kingdom of nature: ‘“ Dead 
mineral matter, as we commonly call it, is instinct with 
force. Each tiny atom is attracted here, repelled there, 
holds and is held as by bands of iron. No particle is 
left to itself, but, watched by the Eternal Eye and guided 
by the Eternal Hand, all obey immutable law. When 
Christ declared the very hairs of our head to be numbered, 
he intimated a chemical truth, which we can now know in 
full to be, that the very atoms of which each hair is com- 
posed are numbered by that same watchful Providence.” 

On the same subject, Steele remarks, at the close of 
his work: “ We have traced some of the wonderful pro- 
cesses by which this world has been arranged to supply 
the varied wants of man. Wherever we have turned, we 
have found proofs of a Divine care, planning, conforming, 
and directing to one universal end; while from the com- 
monest things, and by the simplest means, the grandest 
results have been attained. Thus does Nature attest the 
sublime truth of Revelation, that in all, and through all, 
and over all, the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.” 


EDWARD L. YOUMANS, M.D. 
Dr. E. L. Youmans, a distinguished American scien- 


30 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


tist, has published several works on chemistry and other 
subjects. He was also the founder of the International 
Scientific Series. In one of his works, he says of 
chemistry : 

“Tt is an unfolding of the great laws of nature, around 
and within us, and has an interest, not for experimenters 
alone, but for all who care to understand any thing of 
the scheme of being which the Creator has established, 
and in the midst of which they are placed.” 

‘Our studies lead us to a new perception of that sub- 
lime lesson of science—the Unity of the Universe. The 
revolutions of the celestial orbs are paralleled by the 
ever-recurring cycles of matter upon earth; while the 
energies in action obey in both cases the same beneficent 
but inexorable laws. It is the glory of astronomy to 
have shown that the harmony of our planetary sys- 
tem is maintained by the eternal war of hostile forces, 
which, by their mutual counteraction, keep the heay- 
enly bodies in their circling paths. Chemistry has 
shown that this great principle is not limited to the 
field of celestial mechanism, but that it operates also 
upon earth, and governs the kingdoms of terrestial life. 
Here, too, there are conflict and counteraction—the 
omnipresent antagonism of warring forces resulting in 
the harmony and stability of the living world; another 
illustration of that unity of design and harmony of 
action throughout the universe which proclaim the goy- 
ernment of One Infinite Mind!” 


Clergymen. 31 


CLERGYMEN. 


HENRY WARD BEECHER. 


The celebrity of Henry Ward Beecher as preacher, 
lecturer, author, and editor is well known. His fund of 
knowledge was vast and varied, and the versatility of his 
genius unsurpassed. His power of illustration was re- 
markable, and his delivery in the pulpit and on the plat- 
form impressive and attractive. The two following 
extracts are from his pen: 

“The truths of the Bible are like gold in the soil. 
Whole generations walk over it, and know not what 
treasures are hidden beneath. So centuries of men pass 
over the Scriptures, and know not what riches lie under- 
neath the feet of their interpretation. Sometimes, when 
they discover them, they call them new truths. One 
might as well call gold newly dug, new gold.” 

“The truth may change its form, it may be hid for 
years and generations; but as ‘the old wheat-seeds, 
wrapped in the mummies of Egypt, now, after ages, 
sought out by prying travelers, and planted, are found 
not to have lost their germ, but to have kept it through 
the sleep of three thousand years, so God’s truths, hid 
in dead forms and institutions, slumbering in the grave 
of old books and libraries, or banished from polite soci- 
ety to live in the huts of the poor, do at length come 
forth with unimpaired germ, losing no more by their 
burial than did Christ, their Master. Like him, they 
carry an unquenched heart through the grave. They 
bring forth light from its darkness; and, in spite of brute 


32 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


force and watchful authority, they stand again upon the 
earth, and look abroad with eyes of immortality.” 


LYMAN B. BEECHER, D.D. 


Dr, Lyman Beecher, a Presbyterian clergyman, was 
one of America’s most distinguished theologians. Both 
as a preacher and a writer, he was argumentative, clear, 
and forcible, always presenting truth in its own strong, 
irresistible light. His Six Sermons on Intemperance 
are masterly productions, and did much to promote the 
cause of temperance. His opinion on the influence of 
the Bible in establishing and upholding good government 
and true freedom, with their invaluable blessings, is 
forcibly expressed in the following extract: 

“Our Republic, in its Constitution and laws, is of 
heavenly origin. It was not borrowed from Greece or 
Rome, but from the Bible. Where we borrowed a ray 
from Greece or Rome, stars and suns were borrowed 
from another source—the Bible. There is no position 
more susceptible of proof (the proof is in this volume) 
than that as the moon borrows from the sun her light, 
so our Constitution borrows from the Bible its elements, 
proportion, and power. It was God that gave these ele- 
mentary principles to our forefathers as the ‘pillar of 
fire by night and the cloud by day,’ for their guidance. 
All the liberty the world ever knew is but a dim star to 
the noonday sun which is poured on man by these ora- 
cles of Heaven. It is truly testified by Hume, that the 
Puritans introduced the elementary principles of repub- 
lican liberty in the English constitution; and when they 
came to form colonial constitutions and laws, we all know 
with what veneration and implicit confidence they copied 


Clergymen. 33 


the principles of the constitution and laws of Moses. 
These elementary principles have gone into the Constitu- 
tion of the Union and of every one of the States; and 
we have hence more consistent liberty than ever existed 
in all the world, in all time, out of the Mosaic code.” 


GILBERT BURNETT. 


Bishop. Burnett, of the Church of England, was au- 
thor of a popular work entitled, History of the Refor- 
mation, and was a strong advocate of pure Christianity. 
A short time before his death, he thus expressed him- 
self: 

“True religion is the perfection of human nature, and 
the joy and delight of every one that feels it active and 
strong within him. Of this I write with the more con- 
cern and emotion, because I have felt this the true, and 
indeed the only joy which runs through a man’s. heart 
and life. Itis that which has been for many-years my 
greatest support. I rejoice daily in it. I feel from it 
the earnest of that supreme joy, which I pant and long 
for. Jam sure there is nothing else can afford any true 
or complete happiness. I have, considering my sphere, 
seen a great deal of. all that is most shining and tempt- 
ing in this world. The pleasures of sense I did soon 
nauseate. Intrigues of state, and the conduct of affairs 
have something in them that is more specious; and I was 
for some years deeply immersed in these, but still with 
hopes of reforming the world, and of making mankind 
wiser and better. But I have found that which is crooked 
can not be made straight. JI acquainted myself with 
knowledge and learning, and that in a great variety. 
This yielded not happiness. I cultivated friendship. 


84 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


But this also I have found was vanity and vexation of 
spirit, though it be of the best and noblest sort. The 
sum is, vanity of vanities, all is vanity, besides fearing 
God and keeping his commandments.” 


JOSEPH BUTLER. 


One of the profoundest—if not the profoundest work 
ever published in support of the Christian Religion, is The 
Analogy of Religion to the Constitution and Course of 
Nature, written by Bishop Butler, of the Church of Eng- 
land. The following remarks, descriptive of the nature 
of the work, are taken from Chambers’ Cyclopeedia of 
English Literature: 

‘‘Without entering, at first, on the question of the 
miracles and prophecies, Dr. Butler rested his evidence 
on the analogies of nature: ‘he reasons from that part 
of the Divine proceedings which comes under our view 
in the daily business of life, to that larger and more com- 
prehensive part of these proceedings which is beyond 
our view, and which religion reveals.’ His argument for 
a future life, from the changes which the human body 
undergoes at birth, and in its different stages.of maturity ; 
and from the instances of the same law of nature, in the 
change of worms into butterflies, and birds and insects 
bursting the shell, and entering into a new world, fur- 
nished with new powers, is one of the most conclusive 
pieces of reasoning in the language. ‘The same train of 
argument, in support of the immortality of the soul, has 
been followed up in two admirable lectures, in Dr, T. 
Brown’s Philosophy. The work of Butler, however, ex- 
tends over a wide field—over the whole of the leading 
points, both in natural and revealed religion. The germ 


a 


Clergymen. 35 


of his treatise is contained in a passage in Origen (one 
of the most eminent of the fathers, who died at Tyre in 
the year 254), which Butler quotes in his introduction, 
It is to the effect: that he who believes the Scripture to 
have proceeded from the Author of Nature, may well be- 
lieve that the same difficulties exist in it as in the con- 
stitution of nature. Hence, Butler infers that he who 
denies the Scripture to have come from God, on account 
of difficulties found in it, may, for the same reason, 
deny the world to have been formed by Him. Inexpli- 
cable difficulties are found in the course of nature; no 
sound theist can, therefore, be surprised to find similar 
difficulties in the Christian religion. If both proceed 
from the same Author, the wonder would rather be, that, 
even on this inferior ground of difficulty and adaptation 
to the comprehension of man, there should not be found 
the impress of the same Hand, whose works we can 
trace but a very little way, and whose word equally 
transcends on some points the feeble efforts of unassisted 
reason. All Butler’s arguments on natural and revealed 
religion are marked by profound thought and sagacity. 
In a volume of sermons published by him, he shines 
equally as an ethical philosopher. In the first three, on 
Human Nature, he has laid the science of morals on a 
surer foundation than any previous writer.” 

In his Cyclopedia, or Dictionary of Universal Knowl- 
edge, Chambers says, of these three sermons: They 
‘constitute one of the most important contributions ever 
made to moral science. The scope of the reasoning 1s 
briefly, that virtue is consonant with, and vice a viola- 
tion of, man’s moral nature.” 


386 Lestimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


THOMAS CHALMERS, D.D., LL.D. 


Among the remarkable men of the present century is 
Dr. Chalmers, the Scotch Presbyterian clergyman. As 
a pulpit orator, he ranked with the first, and as a chris- 
tian worker he has seldom been equaled. His writings, 
whether on religion, science, or political economy, are 
held in high esteem. Christendom has had few such 
noble and useful men. The following extract on the value 
yet insufficiency of the light of nature is from his work 
On the Power, Wisdom, and Goodness of God, as mani- 
fested in the Adaptation of External Nature to the Moral 
and Intellectual Constitution of Man. 

“A great object is practically fulfilled by natural 
theology. It gives us to conceive, or to conjecture, or 
to know so much of God, that, if there be a professed 
message with the likely signatures upon it of having pro- 
ceeded from him, though not our duty all at once to sur- 
render, it is at least our bounden duty to investigate. It 
may not yet be entitled to a place in our creed; but it is 
at least entitled to a place in the threshold of the under- 
standing, where it may wait the full and fair examination 
of its credentials. Jt may not be easy to measure the 
intensity of nature’s light; but enough if it be a light, 
that, had we obeyed its intimations, would have guided 
us onward to larger manifestations of the Diety. If 
natural theology but serve thus to fix and direct our in- 
quiries, it may fulfil a most important part as the precur- 
sor of revelation. It may not be itself the temple; but 
it does much by leading the way to it. Even at the out- 
set period of our thickest ignorance, there is a voice 
which calls upon us to go forth in quest of God. And in 


Clergymen. 37 


proportion as we advance, does the voice become more 
urgent and audible, in caliing us onward to further mani- 
festations: It says much for natural theology, that it 
begins at the commencement, and carries us forward a 
part of the way; and it has indeed discharged a most 
important function, if, at the point where it guesses or 
its discoveries terminate, it leaves us with as much light, 
as should make us all awake to the further notices of a 
God, or as shall leave our heedlessness wholly inexcus- 
able. 

“There is a confused imagination with many, that 
every new accession, whether of evidence or of doctrine, 
made to the natural, tends in so far, to reduce the claims 
or to depreciate the importance of the christian theology. 
The apprehension is, that as the latter was designed to 
supplement the insufficiency of the former, then, the 
more that the arguments of natural theology are strength- 
ened, or its truths are multiplied, the more are the les- 
sons of the christian theology unheeded and uncalled for. 
It is thus that the discoveries of reason are held as su- 
perseding, or as casting a shade of insignificance, and of 
even discredit over the discoveries of revelation. There 
is a certain dread or jealousy, with some humble chris- 
tians, of all that incense which is offered at the shrine of 
the divinity by human science, whose daring incursion on 
the field of theology, it is thought, will, in very propor- 
tion to the brilliancy of its success, administer both to 
the proud independence of the infidel, and to the pious 
alarm of the believer. 

“But to mitigate this disquietude, it should be recol- 
lected, in the first place, that, if christianity have real 
and independent evidence of being a message from God, 


38 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


it will be all the more humbly and respectfully deferred 
to, should a previous natural theology have assured us of 
his existence, and thrown the radiance of a clear and 
satisfying demonstration over the perfections of his char- 
acter. However plausible its credentials may be, we 
should feel no great interest in its statements or its over- 
tures, if we doubted the reality of that Being from whom 
it professes to have come; and it is precisely in as far ag 
we are preoccupied with the conviction of a throne in 
heaven, and of a God sitting upon that throne, that we 
should receive what bore the signatures of an embassy 
from him with awful reverence. 

‘But there is another consideration still more decisive 
of the place and importance of christianity, notwithstand- 
ing every possible achievement of the light of nature. 
There are many discoveries which, so far from alleviat- 
ing, serve but to enhance the difficulties of the question. 
For example, though science has made known to us the 
magnitude of the universe, it has not thereby advanced 
one footstep toward the secret of God’s moral adminis- 
tration ; but has, in fact, receded to a greater distance, 
from this now more hopeless, because now more complex 
and unmanageable problem than before.. To multiply 
the data of a question is not always the way to facilitate 
its solution; but often the way, rather to make it more 
inextricable. And this is precisely the effect of all the 
discoveries that can be made by natural theology, on that 
problem which it is the special office of christianity to 
resolve. With every new argument by which philosophy 
enhances the goodness and greatness of the Supreme 
Being, does it deepen still more the guilt and ingratitude 
of those who have revolted against him. The more em- 


Clergymen. 39 . 


phatically it can demonstrate the care and benevolence 
of God, the more emphatically, along with this, does it 
demonstrate the worthlessness of man. The same light 
which irradiates the perfections of the divine nature, 
irradiates, with more fearful manifestations than ever, the 
moral disease and depravation into which humanity has 
fallen. Had natural theology been altogether extinct, 
and there had been no sense of a. law or a Lawgiver 
among men, we should have been unconscious of any dif- 
ficulty to be redressed, of a dilemma from which we 
needed extrication. But the theology of nature and con- 
science tells us of alaw, and in proportion as it multi- 
plies the claims of the Lawgiver in heaven, does: it 
agoravate the criminality of its subjects upon earth. 
With the rebellious phenomenon of a depraved species 
before our eyes, every new discovery of God but deepens 
the enigma of man’s condition in time, and of his pros- 
pects in eternity; and so makes the louder call for that 
remedial system, which it is the very purpose of chris- 
tianity to introduce into the world.” 


WILLIAM E. CHANNING, D.D. 


Few men among Unitarian clergymen have been more 
admired than Dr. W. E. Channing. He was candid and 
even moderate in his peculiar theological views. When 
over sixty years of age, he wrote: “ I am little of a Uni- 
tarian—have little sympathy with the system of Priestley 
and Belsham, and stand aloof from all but those who 
strive and pray for clearer light.” His writings are vol- 
uminous: they treat on the Evidences of Christianity, 
the Life and Character of Illustrious Men, Education, 
War, Slavery, Intemperance, and other important topics. 


40 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


His writings, says Chambers’ Encyclopedia, are “all 
characterized by vigor, eloquence, pure taste, and a lofty 
tone of moral earnestness.” The remarks he makes re- 
specting Jesus Christ and his divine mission are at once 
forcible and just, and can not fail to make a right im- 
pression on every unbiased mind. 

“‘ How is this [the character of Jesus Christ] to be ex- 
plained by the principles of human nature? We are 
immediately struck with this peculiarity in the Author 
of Christianity, that, whilst all other men are formed, in 
a measure, by the spirit of the age, we can discover in 
Jesus no impression of the period in which he lived. We 
know with considerable accuracy the state of society, the 
modes of thinking, the hopes and expectations of the 
country in which Jesus was born and grew up; and he is 
as free from them, and as exalted above them, as if he 
had lived in another world, or with every sense shut on 
the objects around him. His character has in it nothing 
local or temporary. It can be explained by nothing 
around him. His history shows him to us a solitary 
being, living for purposes which none but himself com. 
prehended, and enjoying not so much as the sympathy of 
a single mind. His ,Apostles, his chosen companions, 
brought to him the spirit of the age; and nothing shows 
its strength more strikingly than the slowness with which 
it yielded in these honest men to the instructions of Jesus. 

“Jesus came to a nation expecting a Messiah; and he 
claimed this character. But instead of conforming to 
the opinions which prevailed in regard to the Messiah, 
he resisted them wholly and without reserve. To a 
people anticipating a triumphant leader, under whom 
vengeance as well as ambition was to be glutted by the 


Clergymen. 41 


prostration of their oppressors, he came as a spiritual 
leader, teaching humility and peace. This undisguised 
hostility to the dearest hopes and prejudices of his 
nation; “this disdain of the usual compliances, by which 
ambition and imposture conciliate adherents; this delib- 
erate exposure of himself to rejection and hatred, can 
not easily be explained by the common principles of hu- 
man nature, and excludes the possibility of selfish aims 
in the Author of Christianity. 

“One striking peculiarity in Jesus is the extent, the 
vastness of his views. Whilst all around him looked for 
a Messiah to liberate God’s ancient people—whilst to 
every other Jew, Judea was the exclusive object of pride 
and hope, Jesus came. declaring himself to be the deliv- 
erer and light of the world; and in his whole teaching 
and life, you see a consciousness, which never forsakes 
him, of a relation to the whole human race. The idea 
of blessing mankind—of spreading a universal religion, 
was the most magnificent which had ever entered man’s 
mind. All previous religions had been given to particu- 
lar nations. No conqueror, legislator, or philosopher, in 
the extravagance of ambition, had ever dreamed of sub- 
jecting all nations to a common faith. 

“This conception of a universal religion, intended 
alike for Jew and Gentile, for all nations and climes, is 
wholly inexplicable by the circumstances of Jesus. He 
was a Jew, and the first and deepest and most constant 
impression on a Jew’s mind, was that of the superiority 
conferred on his people and himself by the national reli- 
gion introduced by Moses. ‘The wall between the Jew 
and the Gentile seemed to reach to heaven. The aboli- 

4 


42 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


tion of the peculiarity of Moses, the prostration of the 
temple on Mount Zion, the erection of a new religion, in 
which all men would meet as brethren, and which would 
be the common and equal property of Jew and Gentile, 
these were of all ideas the last to spring up in Judea, 
the last for enthusiasm or imposture to originate. 

“Compare next these views of Christ with his station 
in life. He was of humble birth and education, with 
nothing in his lot, with no extensive means, no rank, or 
wealth, or patronage, to infuse vast thoughts and ex- 
travagant plans. The shop of a carpenter, the village 
of Nazareth, were not spots for ripening a scheme more 
aspiring and extensive than had ever been formed. It is 
a principle of human nature, that, except in case of in- 
sanity, some proportion is observed between the power 
of an individual, and his plans and hopes. The purpose 
to which Jesus devoted himself, was as ill-suited to his 
condition as an attempt to change the seasons, or to make 
the sun rise in the West. That a young man, in obscure 
life, belonging to an oppressed nation, should seriously 
think of subverting the time-hallowed and deep-rooted 
religions of the world, is a strange fact; but with this 
purpose we see the mind of Jesus thoroughly imbued; 
and, sublime as it is, he never falls below it in his lan- 
guage or conduct, but speaks and acts with a conscious- 
ness of superiority, with a dignity and authority, be- 
coming this unparalleled destination. 

‘In this connection, I can not but add another striking 
circumstance in Jesus, and that is, the calm confidence 
with which he always looked forward to the accomplish- 
ment of his design. He fully knew the strength of the 
passions and powers which were arrayed against him, and 


Clergymen. 43 
was perfectly aware that his life was to be shortened by 
violence; yet not a word escapes him implying a doubt 
of the ultimate triumphs of his religion. One of the 
beauties of the Gospels, and one of the proofs of their 
genuineness, is found in our Savior’s indirect and ob- 
scure allusions to his approaching sufferings, and to the 
glory which was to follow; allusions showing us the 
workings of a mind, thoroughly conscious of being ap- 
pointed to accomplish infinite good through great 
calamity. This entire and patient relinquishment of 
immediate success, this ever-present persuasion, that he 
was to perish before his religion would advance, and this 
calm, unshaken anticipation of distant and unbounded 
triumphs, are remarkable traits, throwing a tender and 
solemn grandeur over our Lord, and wholly inexplicable 
by human principles, or by the circumstances in which 
he was placed. 

“The views hitherto taken of Christ relate to his 
public character and office. If we pass to what may be 
called his private character, we shall receive the same 
impression of inexplicable excellence. The most strik- 
ing trait in Jesus was, undoubtedly, benevolence; and, 
although this virtue had existed before, yet it had not 
been manifested in the same form and extent. Christ’s 
benevolence was distinguished first by its expansiveness. 
At that age, an unconfined philanthropy, proposing and 
toiling to do good without distinction of country or rank, 
wat unknown. Love to man as man, love comprehend- 
ing the hated Samaritan and the depised publican, was a 
feature which separated Jesus from the best men of his 
nation and of the world. Another characteristic of the 
benevolence of Jesus, was its gentleness and tenderness, 


44 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


forming a strong contrast with the hardness and ferocity 
of the spirit and manners which then prevailed, and with 
that sternness and inflexibility, which the purest philo- 
sophy of Greece and Rome inculeated as the perfection 
of virtue. But its most distinguishing trait was its 
superiority to injury. Revenge was one of the recog- 
nized rights of the age in which he lived; and though a 
few sages, who had seen its inconsistency with man’s 
dignity, had condemned it, yet none had inculcated the 
duty of regarding one’s worst enemies with that kindness 
which God manifests to sinful men, and of returning 
curses with blessings and prayers. This form of benevo- 
lence, the most disinterested and divine form, was, as all 
well know, manifested by Jesus Christ in infinite strength, 
amidst injuries and indignities which can not be sur- 
passed. Now this singular eminence of goodness, this 
superiority to the degrading influences of the age, under 
which all other men suffered, needs to be explained ; and 
one thing it demonstrates, that Jesus Christ was not an 
unprincipled deceiver, exposing not only his own life but 
the lives of confiding friends, in an enterprise next to 
desperate. | 

“‘T can not enlarge on other traits of the character of 
Christ. I will only observe, that it had one distinction, 
which more than any thing, forms a perfect character. 
It was made up of contrasts: in other words, it was a 
union of excellencies which are not easily reconciled, 
which seem at first sight incongruous, but which, when 
blended and duly proportioned, constitute moral harmony, 
and attract, with equal power, love and veneration. For 
‘example, we discover in Jesus Christ an unparalleled 
dignity of character, a consciousness of greatness, never 


Clergymen. 45 


discovered or approached by any other individual in 
history; and yet this was blended with a condescension, 
lowliness, and unostentatious simplicity, which had never 
before been thought consistent with greatness. In like 
manner, he united an utter superiority to the world, to 
its pleasures and ordinary interests, with suavity of man- 
ners and freedom from austerity. He joined strong 
feeling and self-possesion; an indignant sensibility to 
sin, and compassion to the sinner; an intense devotion 
to his work, and calmness under opposition and ill suc- 
cess; a universal philanthropy, and a susceptibility of 
private atttachments; the authority which became the 
Savior of the world, and the tenderness and gratitude of 
a son. Such was the author of our religion. Andis his 
character to be explained by imposture or insane enthusi- 
asm? Does it not bear the unambiguous marks of a 
heavenly origin? 

‘Perhaps it may be said, this character never existed. 
Then the invention of it is to be explained, and the re- 
‘ception which this fiction met with; and these perhaps 
are as difficult of explanation on natural principles, as its 
real existence. Christ’s history bears all the marks of 
reality: a more frank, simple, unlabored, unostentatious 
narrative was never penned. Besides, his character, if 
invented, must have been an invention of singular diffi- 
culty, because no models existed on which to. frame it. 
He stands alone in the records of time. The conception 
of a being, proposing such new and exalted ends, and 
governed by higher principles than the progress of society 
had developed, implies singular intellectual power. That 
several individuals should join in equally vivid concep- 
tions of this character ; and should not merely describe in 


46 Testimontes in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


general terms the fictitious being to whom it was attrib- 
uted, but should introduce him into real life, should place 
him in a great variety of circumstances in connection 
with various ranks of men, with friends and foes, and 
should in all preserve his identity, show the same great 
and singular mind always acting in harmony with itself; 
this is a supposition hardly credible, and, when the cir- 
cumstances of the writers of the New Testament are 
considered, seems to be as inexplicable on human prin- 
ples as the composition of Newton’s Principia by a 
savage. The character of Christ, though delineated in 
an age of great moral darkness, has stood the scrutiny of 
ages; and, in proportion as men’s moral sentiments have 
been refined, its beauty has been more seen and felt. To 
Suppose it invented, is to suppose that its authors, out- 
stripping their age, had attained to a singular delicacy 
and elevation of moral perception and feeling. But these 
attainments are not very reconcilable with the character 
of its authors, supposing it to be a fiction; that is, with 
the character of habitual liars and impious deceivers. 
“But we are not only unable to discover powers ade- 
quate to this invention. There must have been motives 
for it; for men do not make great efforts, without strong 
motives; and, in the whole compass of human incite- 
ments, we challenge the infidel to suggest any, which 
could have prompted to the work now to be explained. 
“Once more, it must be recollected, that this inven- 
tion, if it were one, was received as real, at a period so 
near to the time ascribed to Christ’s appearance, that the 
means of detecting it were infinite. That men should 
send out such a forgery, and that it should prevail and 


Cleryymen. 47 


triumph, are circumstances not easily reconcilable with 
the principles of our nature. 

‘The character of Christ, then, was real. Its reality 
is the only explanation of the mighty revolution pro- 
duced by his religion. And how can you account for it, 
but by that cause to which he always referred it,—a mis- 
sion from the Father?” 

Dr. Channing, in one of his sermons, as reported by a 
stenographer, thus expressed himself in reference to the 
gospel, as related by the four Evangelists: “Its incon- 
gruity with the age ofits birth; its freedom from earthly 
mixtures; its original, unborrowed, solitary greatness; 
the suddenness with which it broke forth amid the general 
gloom; these, to me, are strong indications of its Divine 
descent. I can not reconcile them witha human origin.” 

On another occasion, Dr. Channing made the following 
significant remark: “If I had any tendency to infidelity, 
the life and character of Jesus Christ—his moral grand- 
eur, his infinite love, and the sublime objects he con- 
templated, would entirely cure me.” 


EDWARD H. CHAPIN, D.D. 


Dr. E. H. Chapin was a distinguished Universalist 
clergyman in New York city: he was also an attractive 
lecturer on subjects of general interest to the public: he 
likewise published several literary works that have been 
much admired. The following extract is from his volume 
of lectures entitled Christianity the Perfection of True 
Manliness, from which it will be seen that however 
much clergymen differ on doctrinal points, they all 
speak in terms of the highest praise of the beneficial in- 
fluence of the christian religion. 


48 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


“The great clement of reform is not born of human 
wisdom: it does not draw its life from human organiza- 
tions. I find it only in Christianity. ‘Thy Kingdom 
come!’ There is a sublime and pregnant burden in this 
prayer. It is the aspiration of every soul that goes forth 
in the spirit of reform. For what is the significance of 
this prayer? It is a petition that all holy influences 
would penetrate and subdue and dwell in the heart of 
man, until he shall think, and speak, and do good from 
the very necessities of his being. So would the institu- 
tions of error and wrong crumble and pass away. So 
would sin die out from the earth. And the human soul, 
living in harmony with the Divine Will, this earth would 
become like heaven. This kingdom of God upon earth 
is no unsubstantiality—it covers no narrow field. It is 
the perfection and the meaning of that which we see, 
however dim and distant, in all true reforms. When it 
comes, the rage of war shall cease, the inequalities of 
rank shall vanish, the chains of the slave will be broken, 
and the feet of the oppressor will rest on the neck of his 
fellow no longer. And the din and the clamor that have 
rocked society for ages, and the woes that have heaved 
its heart so long, will be no more. These will all pass 
away, and be still—like the night and the storm, when 
the summer morning descends upon the mountains, the 
valleys, and the sea. 

“Tt is too late for Reformers to sneer at Christianity : 
it is foolishness for them torejectit. Init are enshrined 
our faith in human progress—our confidence in reform. 
It is indissolubly connected with all that is hopeful, 
spiritual, capable inman. ‘That men have misunderstood 
it, and perverted it, is true. But it is also true that the 


Clergymen. 49 


noblest efforts for human amelioration have come out of 
it—have been based upon it. Is it not so? Come, ye 
remembered ones, who sleep the sleep of the just, who 
took your conduct from the line of Christian Philosophy— 
come from your tombs, and answer! Come, Howard, 
from the gloom of the prison and the taint of the lazar- 
house, and show us what Philanthropy can do when im- 
bued with the spirit of Jesus. Come, Elliot, from the 
thick forest where the red-man listens to the Word of 
Life. Come, Penn, from thy sweet counsel and weapon- 
less victory ; and show us what Christian Zeal and Chris- 
tian Love can accomplish with the rudest barbarism and 
the fiercest hearts. Come, Raikes, from thy labors with 
the ignorant and the poor, and show us with what an eye 
this Faith regards the lowest and least of our race, and 
how diligently it labors, not for the body, not for the 
rank, but for the plastic soul that is to course the ages 
of immortality. And ye, who are a great number—ye 
nameless ones—who have done good in your narrower 
spheres, content to forego renown on earth, and, seeking 
your reward in the Record on High, come and tell us how 
kindly a spirit, how lofty a purpose, or how strong a 
courage, the religion ye professed can breathe into the 
poor, the humble, and the weak. 

“Go forth, then, Spirit of Christianity, to thy great 
work of Bari! The Past bears witness to thee in the 
blood of thy martyrs, and the ashes of thy saints and 
heroes. The Present is hopeful because of thee. The 
Future shall acknowledge thy omnipotence!” 

5 


50 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


ADAM CLARKE, LL.D. 


One of the greatest linguists and profoundest theolo- 
cians that any age or nation ever produced was Dr. Adam 
Clarke, a minister of the Wesleyan Methodist Church in 
England. His Commentary on the Bible is a work that 
has had the admiration of scholars and divines of every 
class. For clearness of statement, candor of expression, 
soundness of reasoning, and force of illustration, it has 
no superior. His opinion of the Bible, after thoroughly 
studying it for nearly a lifetime, is thus recorded at the 
close of his great work. 

“The Sacred Writings are a system of pure, unsophis- 
ticated reason, proceeding from the immaculate mind of 
God: in many places, it is true, vastly elevated beyond 
what the reason of man could have devised or found out ; 
but in no case contrary to human reason. They are ad- 
dressed not to the passions, but to the reason, of man; 
every command is urged with reasons of obedience; and 
every promise and threatening founded on the most evi- 
dent reason and propriety. The whole, therefore, are to 
be rationally understood, and rationally interpreted. He 
who would discharge reason from this, its noblest prov- 
ince, is a friend in his heart to the antichristian maxim, 
‘Tgnorance is the mother of devotion.’ Revelation and 
reason go hand in hand: faith is the servant of the 
former, and the friend of the latter: while the Spirit of 
God, which gave the revelation, improves and exalts 
reason, and gives energy and effect to faith.” “ The doc- 
trines in this book are doctrines of eternal reason; and 
they are revealed, because they are such. Human reason 
could not have found them out; but, when revealed, 


Clergymen. 51 


reason can both apprehend and comprehend them. It 
sees their perfect harmony among themselves; their 
agreement with the perfections of the divine nature, and 
their sovereign suitableness to the nature and state of 
man: thus reason approves and applauds.” 

‘No man either can or should believe a doctrine that 
contradicts reason; but he may safely credit, in any 
thing that concerns the nature of God, what is above 
his reason; and even this may be a reason why he should 
believe it. I can not comprehend the divine nature, 
therefore [ adore it; if I could comprehend, I could not 
adore; forasmuch as the nature or being which can be 
comprehended by my mind, must be less than that by 
which it is comprehended, and, therefore, unworthy of 
its homage. The more knowledge increases, the more 
we shall see that reason and learning, sanctified by piety 
toward God, are the best interpreters of the Sacred 
Oracles.” 

JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE. 

James Freeman Clarke, a prominent Unitarian clergy- 
man of Boston, New England, and also a poet, editor, 
and author of several works, one of which is, The Ten 
Great Religions, thus forcibly and eloquently portrays 
the superiority of the Christian Religion. 

“The religions of Persia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome, 
have come to an end, having shared the fate of the na- 
tional civilization of which each was a part. The relig- 
ions of China, Islam, Buddha, and Judea, have all been 
arrested, and remain unchanged and seemingly unchange- 
able. Like great vessels anchored in a stream, the cur- 
rent of time flows past them, and each year they are 


52 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


further behind the spirit of the age, and less in harmony 
with its demands. Christianity alone, of all religions, pos- 
sesses the power of keeping abreast with the advancing 
civilization of the world. As the child’s soul grows with 
his body, so that when he becomes a man, it is a man’s 
soul, and not a child’s, so the Gospel of Jesus continues 
the soul of all human culture. It continually drops its 
old forms, and takes new ones. It passed out of its Jew- 
ish body under the guidance of Paul. In a speculative 
age, it unfolded into creeds and systems. In a worship- 
ing age, it developed ceremonies and a ritual. When the 
fall of Rome left Europe without unity or center, it gave 
it an organization and order through the Papacy. 
When the Papacy became a tyranny, and the Renaissance 
called for free thought, it suddenly put forth Protestant- 
ism, as the tree by the water-side sends forth its shoots 
in due season. Protestantism, free as air, opens out into 
the various sects, each taking hold of some human need. 
Christianity blossoms out into modern science, literature, 
art; children who indeed often forget their mother, and 
are ignorant of their source, but which are still fed from 
her breasts, and partake of her life. Christianity, the 
spirit of faith, hope, and love, is the deep fountain of 
modern civilization. Its inventions are for the many, 
not for the few. Its science is not hoarded, but diffused. 
It elevates the masses, who every-where else have been 
trampled down ‘The friend of the people, it tends to 
free schools, a free press, a free government, the aboli- 
tion of slavery, war, vice, and the amelioration of society. 
We can not, indeed, here undertake to prove that Chris- 
tianity is the cause of these features peculiar to modern 
life; but we find it every-where associated with them. 


Clergymen. 53 


And so we can say that it only, of all the religions of 
mankind, has been capable of accompanying man in his 
progress from evil to good, from good to better.” 


SAMUEL CLARKE. 


Dr. Samuel Clarke, a clergyman of the Church of 
England, the friend and disciple of Newton, and author 
of several works of a religio-philosophical nature, main- 
tained that the constant agency of the Divine Being was 
necessary to sustain universal nature. He remarks: 

‘¢ All things which we commonly say are the effects of 
the natural powers of matter and laws of motion, are, 
indeed, if we speak strictly and properly, the effects of 
God’s action upon matter continually, and at every 
moment, either immediately by himself, or mediately by 
some created, intelligent being. Consequently there is 
no such thing as the course of nature, or the power of 
nature, independent of the effects produced by the will 
of God.” 

JEAN CLAUDE. 


Claude, a learned divine of the French Protestant 
Church in the seventeenth century, after a long life spent 
in active Christian service, both as a pastor and author, 
remarked, on his death-bed. “I have carefully exam- 
ined all religions ; and no one appears to me worthy of 
the wisdom of God, and capable of leading men to hap- 
piness, but the Christian religion.” 


ORVILLE DEWEY, D.D., LL.D. 
Dr. Orville Dewey was a prominent Unitarian clergy- 
man and a distinguished orator and lecturer. In his 
work, The Problem of Human Destiny, he thus speaks 


54 Testimonies in Favor of [tcligion and the Bible. 


of the universal prevalence of religion, showing that the 
human mind is naturally inclined to it in some form: 

‘Religion was the dominant thought of all the early 
ages. ‘The sceptic, nay the atheist philosopher of history 
and humanity, has been obliged to take it into the very 
heart of his theory; for no account can be given of the 
world, without it. But in the ancient world especially, 
religion reigned supreme. It was the shadow in every 
grove, the wind upon every shore, the waving harvest in 
every field; the sunlit mountains were its burning altars ; 
the deep-sunken glens and caverns its haunted cham- 
bers; its idols were in every house, its signet was upon 
every hearth-stone; birth and burial, feast and fight, it 
claimed for its own; it was the consecration of marriage, 
the strength of government, the sanctitude of kingship ; 
it was the seal upon every thing sacred; upon every oath 
and covenant and bond in the world. Nay, and concern- 
ing the more modern ages, the ablest judge on the sub- 
ject, M. Guizot, says, that ‘until the fifteenth century, 
we see in Kurope no general and powerful igen, really 
acting upon the masses, but religious ideas.’ 

In ane same work, The Brohlen of Human Destiny, 
referring to science and its wonderful revelations, Dr. 
Dewey says: 

“Tt does not fall within my present design to speak at 
length of its vastness—of the grand fabric of scientific 
knowledge which man has built up in the world; to show 
how he has stretched the compass of his investigation 
from the earth to the skies; how he has analyzed every 
known substance, and studied the laws of invisible 
agencies, and penetrated into the beds and layers of the 
old creation, and deciphered its history ; how he has de- 


Clergymen. 55 
scried millions of living creatures sporting in a globule 
of water, and then risen to follow the millioned globes of 
heaven in their courses; how he has traced out astonish- 
ing analogies of structure between the flower of the field 
and the system of heavenly spheres—between the ar- 
rangement and development of the solar system, and the 
branchings of our forest trees—showing them all to be 
of one type, one order, one creative idea. But whither 
can all this stupendous knowledge lead, but to God! 
Where can man bow down his awe-struck reason but 
before the throne of the invisible Might? Science 1s 
the natural ally and minister of religion. And this, not- 
withstanding the assumptions of some philosophers, 
whom not science, but irreverence has made Atheists, 
has now come to be regarded as the established truth.” 

Dr. Dewey, at the close of his Problem of Human Des- 
tiny, thus earnestly and impressively calls upon Chris- 
tian America to put forth her noblest energies for the 
world’s grand reformation : 

“A solemn thing it is for us, the American people, to 
take our place in the great procession of nations. Whence 
came we, and why are we here, but to do our part? The 
sorrowing ages call upon us to do our part. The tears 
and groans of long-suffering and sighing humanity call 
upon us to do our part. Empires crushed under the 
weight of hopeless bondage—millions that have wan- 
dered in the darkness of ignorance and amidst the ter- 
rors of superstition, address to us—to us especially—the 
great adjuration ; and they say, O ye, a people free, in- 
telligent, Christian!—who know your duty and have 
liberty to perform it; O ye, a people, whose foot is set 
upon an unchartered soil; whose hands are filled with 


56 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


the riches of the world; whose children, partners of your- 
selves, are to wander down the coming ages, through the 
fairest domain that God ever gave to man; hear the voice 
of humanity; hear the voice that comes from earth—and 


that comes from Heaven !” 


FRANCIS FENELON. 


Archbishop Fenelon, one of the most eloquent divines 
of the French Catholic pulpit, once uttered the devout 
exclamation: “O my God, he who does not see thee in 
thy works, has seen nothing! He who does not confess 
thy hand in the beautiful productions of this well-ordered 
world, is a stranger to the best affections of the heart. 
He exists as though he existed not; and his life is no 
more than a dream.” : 

What a bright testimony in favor of religion is the 
following: When Lord Peterboro lodged for a season 
with Fenelon, he was so delighted with his piety and vir- 
tue, that he exclaimed at parting, “If I stay here any 
longer, I shall become a Christian in spite of myself.” 


RANDOLPH S. FOSTER, D.D., LL.D. 


The prominent traits in the character of Jesus Christ 
are thus strikingly portrayed by Bishop Foster, one of 
the most eloquent and efficient ministers of the Metho- 
dist Episcopal Church: 

‘“‘ Tfis character has passed the test of malicious assault 
for two thousand years, and it stands-out to-day before 
the world as faultless in every part. It comprises all 
paradoxes; more tender and gentle than that of a woman, 
it is yet as rugged as a mountain, stern as an avenger, 
and inflexible as fate; he was gentle, but not weak, and 


OE 


Clergymen. 57 


always strong and grand; he made no clamor, but moved 
among the people like a gentle current; yet wherever 
he went, he stirred and agitated human society to its 
depths; he dealt in the symbols of eternal judgment, 
but they came from his lips so tenderly as to move his 
hearers to tears; he combined gentleness with strength, 
and pity with power; he was gentle yet terrible, as when 
he overthrew the tables of the money-changers in the 
temple; he was a revelation of a grand and rugged man- 
hood; and of something nobler and deeper, something 
higher and grander, than the world. His name stands 
as the synonym of God on earth.” 


GEORGE GILFILLAN. 


George Gilfillan, a Presbyterian clergyman, was author 
of numerous works, amongst which are, A Gallery of Lit- 
erary Portraits, 3-vols.; Christanity and Our Era; The 
Poets and Poetry of the Bible; British Poets, 48 vols. 
His writings display a rich yet singular fancy, and wide 
literary sympathies, though regarded by some as deficient 
in refinement of taste. From his Introduction to the 
Poets and Poetry of the Bible, we give the following ex- 
tract : } 

“The Bible, while bearing on its summit the hues of a 
higher heaven, overtopping with ease all human struc- 
tures and aspirations—in earth, but not of it—commu- 
nicating with the omniscience, and recording the acts of 
the omnipotence, of God—is, at the same time, the Bible 
of the poor and lowly, the crutch of the aged, the pillow 
of the widow, the eye of the blind, the thes s own book,’ 
the solace of the sick, the light of the dying, the antl 
hope and refuge of simple, sincere, and sorrowing spir- 


58 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


its; it is thts which at once proclaims its unearthly 
origin, and so clasps it to the great common heart of hu- 
manity, that the extinction of the sun were not more 
mourned than the extinction of the Bible, or than even 
its receding from its present pride of place. For, while 
other books are planets shining with reflected radiance, 
this book, like the sun, shines with ancient and unbor- 
rowed ray. Other books have, to their loftiest altitudes, 
sprung from earth; this book looks down from heayen 
high. Other books appeal to understanding or fancy, 
this book to conscience and to faith. Other books seek 
our attention: this book demands it—it speaks with au- 
thority, and not as the Scribes. Other books guide 
gracefully along the earth, or onward toward the moun- 
tain-summits of the ideal; this, and this alone, conducts 
up the awful abyss which leads to heaven. Other books, 
after shining their little season, may perish in flames, 
fiercer than those which destroyed the Alexandrian Li- 
brary; this must, in essence, remain pure as gold, but 
unconsumable as asbestos, in the general conflagration. 
Other books may be forgotten in a universe where suns 
go down and disappear, like bubbles in the stream ; the 
memory of this book shall shine as the brightness of that 
eternal firmament, and as those higher stars, which are 
for ever and ever. 
ROBERT HALL. 

Few men, while living, have attracted more attention, 
or excited more admiration, than Robert Hall. He had 
a superior intellect and vast stores of learning, and, at 
the same time, a brilliant imagination and almost un- 
equaled powers of description His sermons are master- 
pieces of oratory, and are replete with the beauty of 


Clergymen. 59 


holiness: his other writings, too, which are varied in 
their character, are amongst the finest productions in the 
world’s literature. Ile was a Baptist clergyman, and the 
son of a Baptist clergyman; but like all men of noble 
mind, he was liberal toward genuine christians of all de- 
nominations, and friendly in his intercouse with them. 
He thus eloquently expresses his high admiration of the 
Inspired Volume: 

‘‘The Bible is the treasure of the poor, the solace of 
the sick, and the support of the dying; and while other 
books may amuse and instruct in a leisure hour, it is the 
peculiar triumph of that book to create light in the midst 
of darkness, to alleviate the sorrow which admits of no 
other alleviation, to direct a beam of hope to the heart 
which no other topic of consolation can reach; while 
guilt, despair, and death vanish at the touch of its holy 
inspiration. There is something in the spirit and diction 
of the Bible which is found peculiarly adapted to arrest 
the attention of the plainest and most uncultivated 
minds. The simple structure of its sentences, com- 
bined with a lofty spirit of poetry—its familiar allusions 
to the scenes of nature and the transactions of common 
life—the delightful intermixture of narration with the 
doctrinal and preceptive parts—and the profusion of 
miraculous facts, which throw us into a sort of enchanted 
ground—its constant advertence to the Deity, whose per- 
fections it renders almost visible and palpable—unite in 
bestowing upon it an interest which attaches to no other 
performance, and which, after assiduous and repeated 
perusal, invests it with much of the charm of novelty ; 
like the great orb of day, at which we are wont to gaze 
with unabated astonishment from infancy to old age. 


60 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


What other book besides the Bible could be heard in 
public assemblies from year to year, with an attention 
that never tires, and an interest that never clogs. With 
few exceptions, let a portion of the Sacred Volume be 
recited in a mixed multitude, and though it has been 
heard a thousand times, a universal stillness ensues, 
every eye is fixed, and every ear is awake and attentive. 
Select, if you can, any other composition, and let it be 
rendered equally familiar to the mind, and see whether 
it will produce this effect.” 

In his Sermon on Modern Infidelity,—perhaps the 
grandest ever delivered, excepting the Savior’s,—Hall 
refers to the attempt made by the revolutionary atheists 
of France to overthrow the Christian Religion, and es- 
tablish in its stead what they called, Reason ; but the at- 
tempt was utterly fruitless: it brought on what histo- 
rians have termed, the Reign of Terror. How truly, in 
the following eloquent passage, he portrays the fiendish- 
ness of their work. 

“God permitted the trial to be made. In one country, 
and that the center of Christendom, revelation under- 
went a total eclipse, while atheism, performing on a 
darkened theater its strange and fearful tragedy, con- 
founded the first elements of society, blended every age, 
rank, and sex, in indiscriminate proscription and mas- 
sacre, and convulsed all Europe to its center; that the 
imperishable memorial of these events might teach the 
last generations of mankind to consider religion as the 
pillar of society, the safeguard of nations, the parent of 
social order, which alone has power to curb the fiery 
passions and to secure to every one his rights. Those 
who prepared the minds of the people for that great 


Eee 


Clergymen. 61 


change, and for the reign of atheism, were avowed enemies 
to revelation: in all their writings the diffusion of skepti- 
cism and revolutionary principles went hand in hand: 
the fury of the most sanguinary parties was especially 
pointed against the Christian priesthood and religious in- 
stitutions, without once pretending, like other persecutors, 
to execute the vengeance of God (whose name they never 
mentioned) upon his enemies: their atrocities were com- 
mitted with a wanton levity and brutal merriment: the 
reign of atheism was ayowedly and expressly the reign 
of terror: in the full madness of their career, in the 
highest climax of their horrors, they shut up the temples 
of God, abolished his worship, and proclaimed death to 
be an eternal sleep, as if by pointing to the silence of 
the sepulcher and the sleep of the dead these ferocious 
barbarians meant to apologize for leaving neither sleep, 
quiet, nor repose for the living. No sooner were the 
speculations of atheistical philosophy matured, than they 
gave birth to a ferocity which converted the most pol- 
ished people in Europe into a horde of assassins—the 
seat of voluptuous refinement and of arts into a theater 
of blood. Atheism is an inhuman, bloody, ferocious sys- 
tem, equally hostile to every useful restraint and to 
every virtuous affection ; that, leaving nothing above us 
to excite our awe, nor round us to awaken our tender- 
ness, wages war with heaven and with earth. Its first 
object is to dethrone God, its next to destroy man.” 

Having full faith in the promises of the Bible, relative 
to the universal spread of religious knowledge, and the 
final triumph of truth and righteousness, Hall utters the 
following encouraging words : 

“We have nothing to fear; for to an attentive ob- 


62 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


server of the signs of the times, it will appear one of 
the most extraordinary phenomena of this eventful 
crisis, that, amidst the ravages of atheism and infidelity, 
real religion is on the increase; the stream of divine 
knowledge, unobserved, is flowing in new channels, wind- 
ing its course among humble valleys, refreshing thirsty 
deserts, and enriching, with far other and higher bless- 
ings than those of commerce, the most distant climes 
and nations; until, agreeably to the prediction of proph- 
ecy, the knowledge of the Lord shall fill and cover the 
whole earth.” 
JAMES HAMILTON, D.D. 

Dr. James Hamilton, speaking of the vast and varied 
information in the Bible, and its adaptability to the 
human mind and the human heart, remarks: 

‘God made the Bible as the guide and oracle of man; 
but had he meant it as a mere lesson-book of duty, a 
volume less various and less attractive would have an- 
swered every end. <A few plain paragraphs announcing 
God’s own character, and his disposition toward us 
sinners here on earth, mentioning the provision he has 
made for our future happiness, and indicating the differ- 
ent duties he would have us perform—a few simple 
sentences would have sufficed to tell what God is, and 
what he would have us do. There was no need for the 
picturesque narrative and the majestic poem; no need 
for the proverb, the story, and the psalm. A chapter of 
theology, and another of morals, a short. account of the 
incarnation and the great atonement, and a few pages of 
rules and directions for the Christian life, might have 
contained the practical essence of Scripture, and have 
supplied us with a Bible of simplest meaning and smallest 


EE 


Clergymen. 63 


size. And in that case the Bible would haye been con- 
sulted only by those rare and wistful spirits to whom the 
great hereafter is a subject of anxiety, who are really 
anxious to know what God is, and how themselves may 
please him. 

“But in giving that Bible, its Divine Author had re- 
gard to the mind of man, He knew that man has more 
curiosity than piety, more taste than sanctity, and that 
more persons are anxious to hear some new, and read 
some beauteous thing, than to read or hear about God 
and the great salvation. He knew that few would ever 
ask, What must I do to be saved? till they came in con- 
tact with the Bible itself; and, therefore, he made the 
Bible not only an instructive book, but an attractive one ; 
not only true, but enticing. He filled it with marvelous 
incident, and engraving history with sunny pictures from 
Old-World scenery, and affecting anecdotes from the 
patriarch times. He replenished it with stately argument 
and thrilling verse, and sprinkled it over with sententious 
wisdom and proverbial pungency. He made it a book 
of lofty thoughts and noble images; a book of heavenly 
doctrine, but withal of earthly adaptation. In preparing 
a guide to immortality, Infinite Wisdom gave not a dic- 
tionary nor a orammar, but a Bible; a book which, in 
trying to catch the heart of man, should captivate his 
taste; and which, in transforming his affections, should 
also expand his intellect.” 


LEONIDAS L. HAMLINE, D.D. 
Few ministers of the gospel have written with more 
elegance of style, or preached with more true eloquence, 
or uttered more worthy sentiments on divine things, or 


64 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the bible. 


shown more of the spirit of Christ both in public and 
private life, than Bishop Hamline of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church. On the great Bible doctrine of the 
omniscience of the Deity, how elevated are his thoughts 
as expressed in the following sublime passage : 

‘Ts this universe an unsurveyed and solitary waste? 
Do you fancy there is no presence to cheer it, nor eye to 
look upon it forever? There is an Eye whose vision is 
spread all over this amazing scene. There is a Mind 
present unto it in all its illimitable extent. The Eternal 
One, at the same moment converses with its immeasur- 
ably remote extremes. There is a Mind to whose 
intelligence all this amazing vast of worlds on worlds, 
and suns on suns, and systems on systems, is distinctly 
apparent. Kvery atom in this magnificent immensity, 
whether sinking in its depths or aspiring to its heights; 
whether resting on its axis, or whirling on its verge, is 
watched by the intense and eternal scrutiny of the omni- 
present and omniscient God.” 


JAMES HERVEY. 


James Hervey, a minister of the Church of England, 
was author of a popular work containing Meditations 
among the Tombs, Reflections in a Flower Garden, Con- 
templations on the Starry Heavens, and others of a 
similar nature. ‘The style is very ornate, and was con- 
demned severely by some of the critics; and yet it has 
been read extensively by the religious public. He was 
one of the six students with the Wesleys at Oxford, 
distinguished for earnest piety. He died early; and 
when coming to the close of life, wrote to a friend as 
follows: 


Clergymen. 65 


‘‘T have been too fond of reading every thing valuable 
and elegant that has been penned in our language, and 
been peculiarly charmed with the historians, orators, and 
poets of antiquity; but were I to renew my studies, I 
would take leave of those accomplished trifles ; 1 would 
resign the delights of modern wits, amusement, and 
eloquence, and devote my attention to the Scripture of 
truth; I would sit with much greater assiduity at my 
divine Master’s feet, and desire to know nothing in com- 
parison of Jesus Christ and him crucified.” 


RICHARD HOOKER. 


One of the most distinguished writers of the sixteenth 
century was Richard Hooker, a learned and highly gifted 
theologian of the Church of England. His great work 
on the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity contains a large 
amount of information on the subjects discussed. The 
following extract has been greatly admired for its con- 
ciseness and beauty : 

“Of law there can be no less acknowledged than that 
her seat is the bosom of God; her voice the harmony of 
the world. All things in heaven and earth do her hom- 
age; the very least, as feeling her care ; and the greatest, 
as not exempt from her power; both angels and men, 
and creatures of what condition soever, though each in 
different sort and manner, yet all with uniform consent 
admiring her as the mother of peace and joy.” 


PERE HYACINTHE. 
Pere Hyacinthe, an eloquent and fearless Catholic 
priest in Paris, while recently preaching a charity 
6 


66 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


sermon in Lyons, in behalf of the asylum for the poor, 
having asked his audience, which was composed of the 
principal Catholic families, if they knew why Prussia 
triumphed on the field of battle in the war with Austria, 
said, “‘It is because the nation is more enlightened, more 
religious, and because every Prussian soldier has the 
Bible in his knapsack. I will add, that what produces 
the power and superiority of Protestant peoples is, they 
possess and read the Bible at their own firesides. I have 
been twice in England, and have learned that the Bible 
is the strength of that nation.” 


JOHN JEWELL, D.D. 


Bishop Jewell, one of the great lights of the Church 
of England during the Reformation, has presented, in a 
manner the most forcible, the immutability of the truth 
of the Bible, and its triumph over all opposing forces. 
He remarks: 

‘Cities fall, empires come to nothing, kingdoms fade 
away as smoke. Where is Numa, Minos, Lycurgus? 
Where are their books? and what has become of their 
laws? But that this book no tyrant should have been 
able to consume, nortradition to choke, no heretic mali- 
ciously to corrupt; that it should stand unto this day, 
amid the wreck of all that was human, without the altera- 
tion of one sentence so as to change the doctrine taught 
therein, surely there isa very singular providence, claim- 
ing our attention in a most remarkable manner.” 


CHARLES KINGSLEY. 


Charles Kingsley, a clergyman of the Church of Eng- 
land, and a distinguished christian writer of the present 


Clergymen. 67 


century, also Professor of Modern History at Cambridge, 
remarks, in a letter to a friend : 

“ You are a sanguine man, who ask me to solve for you 
the problem of éxistence—since the days of Job and 
Solomon, since the days of Socrates and Buddha, the 
especial problem, too, of our time, with its increased 
knowledge of physical science. But what I seem to 
know, I will tell you. Knowing and believing a great 
deal of the advanced physical science of the modern 
school, I still can say I do not believe in the existence 
of law. ‘Laws of Nature,’ ‘Laws impressed,’ or ‘ prop- 
erties impressed on matter, are to me, after careful 
analysis of their meaning, mere jargon. Nothing exists 
but Will. All physical laws and phenomena are but the 
manifestations of that Will—one, orderly, utterly wise, 
utterly benevolent. In Him, ‘the Father,’ I can trust, 
in spite of the horrible things I see—in spite of the fact 
that my own prayers are not always answered. I believe 
that he makes all things work together for the good of 
the human race, and of me, among the rest, as long as I 
obey his will. I believe that He will answer my prayer, 
not according to the letter, but according to the spirit of 
it; that if [ Aone ioaat I shall find good, though not 
always the good [long for. And ‘ Law’ and ‘ Necessity ; 
I look upon as phantoms of my own imagination, always 
ready to reappear, but always certain, likewise, to vanish 
again, before one sound blow of careful logic, or of prac- 
tical life.” 

L. A. LAMBERT. 

Each generation seems to produce some bold declaimer 
against religion and the Bible. The Church of God, 
however, has never been without able defenders of its 


68 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


doctrines and institutions. There has recently come 
before the public an intelligent writer with peculiar tal- 
ents for attacking infidelity and refuting its errors and 
absurdities, the Rev. L. A. Lambert, a Catholic. priest. 
He is the author of several works on the subject, in which 
his arguments are powerful and convincing, and his style 
terse and luminous. He was chaplain in the army during 
the war for the preservation of the Union. In his Notes 
on Ingersoll, he quotes from the infidel, the following 
passage: “The universe, according to my idea, is, al- 
ways was, and forever will be. It is the one eternal 
being—the only thing that ever did, does, or can exist.” 
On this atheistical sentiment, Lambert makes the follow- 
ing comment, in which he forcibly shows the absurdity of 
materialism : 

‘Tf this universe of matter alone exists, the mind, in- 
tellect, or soul, must be matter, or a form of matter. 
Sublimate or attenuate matter to an indefinite extent, it 
yet remains matter. Now, if the mind is matter, it must 
obey the forces that govern and regulate the action of 
matter. ' 

“The forces that govern matter are invariable. From 
this it follows that every thought of the philosopher, 
every calculation of the mathematician, every imagina- 
tion and fancy of the poet, are mere results of material 
force, entirely independent of the individuals conceiving 
them. The sublime conceptions and creations of Shake- 
speare and Milton, the wonderful discoveries of Newton, 
Arago,and Young, the creations of Raphael and Angelo, 
are nothing more than the flowering and blooming of 
carnal vegetation. Are all the externs of lunatic asy- 
lums prepared to accept this philosophy ? 


Clergymen. 69 


“But let us go a little further: You are proud of 
your philosophy and your wisdom. But why should you 
be so if your ideas are the mere results of the forces that 
govern matter? And why should you try to convert the 
world to your way of thinking, if the world must be gov- 
erned by the unalterable laws of matter? I believe in 
the Holy Scriptures. Is that the result of material 
forces? Ifso, why try to persuade me to the contrary ? 
If your materialistic theory is true, how can I help being 
a Christian? If I am the victim of unalterable forces or 
laws, why try to convince or persuade me? Do these 
material forces compel you to try to persuade me to 
assent to your notions, and, at the same time, compel me 
to reject them? Why condemn kings as tyrants, and 
priests as hypocrites, if they are the helpless victims of 
the unalterable forces of matter?” 

“You are an apostle of liberty. If there is any thing 
of value in this world, it is liberty. You thrum this tune 
till your readers get tired of it. Now, if there is nothing 
but matter, and if matter is governed by invariable laws, 
there can be no liberty whatever. Materialism destroys 
human liberty and free agency, leaving man the victim 
of physical forces.. You who prize liberty so highly 
should repudiate a theory that destroys it. If man is 
not free, and he can not be according to your materialistic 
doctrine, you are inconsistent when you appeal to his 


intelligence. You are equally inconsistent if you expect 


your reasonings to convince him, since his conviction 
must depend on material forces independent of him and 
you. If you understand your principles, you are bound, 
by the force of logic, to be silent and wait in patience 
the outcome of those forces which are unalterable, irre- 


70 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


sistible, and unavoidable. If men’s thoughts are the 
result of mere physical forces, it is insanity to reason 
with them. As well might you reason with a clock for 
running too fast, with fire for burning, or with a tree for 
growing.” 

Lambert thus elucidates the abuse of liberty: ‘Crime 
is the result of human liberty—though not a necessary 
result—and suffering is the result of crime. Physical 
evil is the result of moral evil, and moral evil is the 
result of a perverse use of liberty, which is good in itself. 
God made man a free agent, not that he might abuse his 
freedom, but that he might use it to assist him in his 
beneficent design, which is the happiness of his creatures. 
But man abused the gift of liberty, and, in doing so, 
produced discord in universal harmony. The free agent, 
man, proved himself untrue to his trust. He betrayed 
it, and thus became a victim of the disorder he himself 
produced. The agent is responsible to his principal, 
anda failure to perform the duties assigned him brings 
upon him punishment and disgrace.” 


JEAN BAPTISTE MASSILLON. 


Massillon, Bishop of Clermont, France, was one of the 
most distinguished of Catholic pulpit orators. His 
preaching was not declamatory, but characterized by an 
earnest impressiveness of look and voice. He frequently 
preached in Paris. Louis XIV, after hearing him, 
remarked that when he heard other great preachers, he 
felt satisfied with them; but when he heard Massillon he 
felt dissatisfied with himself. In his diocese, he was 
esteemed for his amiable disposition, gentleness and 


Clergymen. 71 


charity. The following extract is from his sermon on 
the Certainty of a Future State: 

“Tf there be no future state, what design, worthy of 
his wisdom, could God have proposed in creating man? 
What! in forming man, had he no other view than in 
forming the beast? Man! that being so noble, who is 
capable of such sublime thoughts, such vast desires, and 
such grand sentiments,—susceptible of love, truth and 
justice: man, of all creatures, alone worthy of a great 
destination, that of knowing and loving the Author of 
his being! Can it be that man should be made only for 
the earth, to pass a small portion of days, like the beast, 
in trifling employments, or sensual gratifications? that 
he should fill his purpose, by acting so risible and so 
pitiable a part; and afterward should sink back to 
nonentity, without any other use having been made of 
that vast mind and elevated heart which the Author of 
his being had given him? O God! where would here be 
thy wisdom, to have made so grand a work for the dura- 
tion only of a moment? to have exhibited men upon the 
earth only as a playful essay of thy power; or to amuse 
thy leisure by a variety of shows! The deity of the 
freethinker is not grand, therefore, but because he is 
more unjust, capricious, and despicable than men! Pur- 
sue these reflections, and support, if you can, all the 
extravagance of their folly. 

“How worthy, then, of God to watch over the uni- 
verse; to conduct man, whom he has created, by the 
laws of justice, truth, charity, and innocence; to make 
virtue and reason the bond of union and the foundation 
of human society! How worthy of God to love in his 
creatures those virtues which render himself amiable; to 


72 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


hate the vices which disfigure in them his image; not to 
confound forever the just with the impious; to render 
happy with himself those souls who have lived only for 
him; and to deliver up to their own misery those who 
believed they had found a happiness independent of him! 

‘¢ Behold the God of the Christians! Behold that wise, 
just, and holy Deity whom we adore! The advantage 
we have over the freethinker is, that ours is the God of 
an innocent and pure heart; the God whom all creatures 
manifest to us; whom all ages have invoked; whom the 
sages, even of paganism, have acknowledged; and of | 
whom nature has deeply engraven the idea on the very 
foundation of our being!” 

In his sermon on the Truth of Religion, Massillon 
speaks of the mysteries of religion as recorded in the 
Holy Scriptures, and of the great value of these Scrip- 
tures to the Jewish people, as a means of religious in- 
struction. He remarks: 

‘These mysteries were foretold many ages before their 
accomplishment, and foretold with every circumstance of 
times and places; nor are they vague prophecies, referred 
to the credulity of the vulgar alone, uttered in a corner 
of the earth, of the Same age as the events, and unknown 
to the rest of the universe. ‘They are prophecies which, 
from the beginning of the world, have constituted the 
religion of an entire people; which fathers transmitted 
to their children as their most precious inheritance; 
which were preserved in the holy temple as the most 
sacred pledge of the divine promises; and, lastly, to 
the truth of which the nation most inveterate against 
Jesus Christ, and their first depository, still at present 
bears witness in the face of the whole universe: prophe- 


Clergymen. 73 


cies which were not mysteriously hidden from the people 
lest their falsehood should be betrayed; like those vain 
oracles of the sibyls, carefully shut up in the capitol 
fabricated to support the Roman pride, exposed to the 
view of the pontiffs alone, and produced piecemeal, from 
time to time, to authorize in the mind of the people 
either a dangerous enterprise or an unjust war. On the 


_ contrary, our prophetical books were the daily study of 


a whole people. The young and the old, women and 
children, priests and men of all ranks, princes and sub- 
jects, were indispensably obliged to have them continu- 
ally in their hands; every one was entitled to study his 
duties there, and to discover his hopes. Far from flat- 
tering their pride, they held forth only the ingratitude of 
their fathers; in every page they announced misfortunes 
to them as the just punishment of their crimes; to kings 
they reproached their dissipations, to the pontiffs their 
profusion, to the people their inconstancy and unbelief; 
and, nevertheless, these holy books were dear to them; 
and, from the oracles which they saw continually accom- 
plishing in them, they awaited with confidence the fulfill- 
ment of those which the whole universe hath now wit- 
nessed.” 
BISHOP M’ILVAINE, D.D., LL.D., D.C.L. 

Among the ornaments of Christianity, Bishop M’Ilvaine, 
of the Protestant Episcopal Church, ranks deservedly 
high. He was, for several years, President of Kenyon 
College, and afterward of Gambier Theological Seminary. 
He was also author of several works on theology. His 
Evidences of Christianity is an able presentation of the 
great argument. It has passed through several editions 


74 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


both in Europe and America. The American Tract 
Society now publishes it. Lord Bexley, President of 
the British and Foreign Bible Society, says, “While the 
chain of argument is deduced with great clearness and 
force, no opportunity is lost of giving it a practical 
application, and of impressing holiness on the heart, as 
well as conviction on the understanding.” The following 
extract is from the argument on the Fruits of Chris- 
tianity: 

‘We have now applied to Christianity the test by 
which she claims to be proved—one universally em- 
ployed as safe, and approved as just—the tree es known 
by its fruits. The religion of the Gospel we have seen 
coming into the world at a period when every moral evil 
abounded. The grossest idolatry, attended with the most 
inhuman and indecent rites, prevailed among the most 
enlightened nations. Spectacles of slaughter and suffer- 
ing constituted the public amusements. Parents without 
natural affection, children in slavery to their parents, and 
at the mercy of their displeasure, the female sex de- 
graded to a rank of servile inferiority, murders and 
cruelties, characterized the age. Vices of the most 
beastly kind were’ practiced and avowed in the highest 
and most influential classes of society. What would now 
shame out of the world the most degraded of mankind 
could then be acknowledged, even by a public teacher of 
morals, without reproach. Public opinion, the ther- 
mometer of public virtue, had no condemnation for habits 
not only against all the securities of domestic happiness 
and social welfare, but against every dictate of nature, 
and requiring for their permission the lowest debasement 
of the moral sense of the community. Among all the 


eee Ol ee ee ee ee 


Clergymen. 75 


gentile nations, none possessed the benevolence to at- 
tempt—nothing had power to effect the reformation of a 
world thus sunk in wretchedness and paralyzed with vice. 
It was the era indeed of the world’s wisdom, but a 
wisdom by which the world knew not God. For centu- 
ries had the wise men after the flesh been teaching and 
writing and boasting, and as long had every woe been 
increasing, and every school becoming more perplexed 
in its doctrines and more abandoned in the practice of its 
disciples. No change for the better was hoped for from 
any human source. Then appeared the ‘ wisdom of God.’ 
Christianity, uninvited, unwelcomed, rejected—Chris- 
tianity, persecuted as intrusive, despised as foolishness, 
ridiculed as weakness, commenced at this crisis the bold 
work of regenerating the world. Wherever she gained 
acceptation, the face of society was renewed. Order, 
purity, benevolence, justice, mercy, every personal, do- 
mestic, and public virtue increased as her influence ex- 
tended. Under her charge extensive communities of 
men and women were formed, who soon became famous 
in the world for their earnest self-denying benevolence, 
and their devotion to holiness. No sooner was Chris- 
tianity professed by the rulers of the Roman empire, 
than idolatry, with every unnatural crime and cruel 
amusement, was abolished from society, or compelled to 
deny its existence. In proportion as this religion has 
reigned in any age or country, there has been a manifest 
increase of all the blessings of civilization, all the arts 
of peace, all the virtues of individual character, all the 
securities of a wise and equitable government. Nothing 
has retarded the growth of these benefits but what has 
alike retarded the progress of Christianity. No Chris- 


76 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


tian people have suffered on account of any evil which 
Christianity has not directly opposed. Present efforts to 
spread this holy religion among the heathen demonstrate 
that her natural force is not abated, nor her influence 
changed. What she did among the pagans of the first 
century, she is accomplishing, though as yet by slower 
steps, among those of the nineteenth. Such has been 
from the beginning, such is now, and such, we have every 
reason to believe, ever will be the fruit of Christianity. 
By this she is known. By this let her claims to truth 
and a divine origin be judged. Every honest mind is 
capable of appreciating the evidence and of applying the 
law. It is a case by itself. No party appears to claim 
the credit of what Christianity ascribes to herself. 
Philosophy* and the light of nature are joined to their 
idols and vices, and can not come to the trial, and must 
therefore be excused. Infidelity was tried during the 


*The illustrious divine evidently refers to a false, not true 
philosophy, and to a perverted, not genuine, light of nature. 
With the sentiment of Kirke White, every true christian will 
agree: 

‘What does philosophy impart to man 
But undiscoyered wonders ; let her soar 
Even to her proudest’ heights, to where she caught 
The soul of Newton and of Socrates, 
She but extends the scope of wild amaze 
And admiration ; all her lessons end 
In wider views of God’s unfathomed depths.” 


In regard to the light of nature, Dr. Young, speaking of some 
of the sages of Greece and Rome, very happily says, they taught 


that 
‘Nature is a glass, reflecting God, 


2 As, by the sea, reflected is the sun, 
Too glorious to be gazed on in his sphere.” 


Clergymen. 17 


‘reign of terror’ in France, and received its sentence at 
the guillotine, and therefere can not come. Hither the 
blessings we have described must be adjudged, according 
to the plea, to the gospel of Christ, or pronounced to be 
effects without a cause. Do they belong to the gospel, or 
to nothing? We speak the language of every conscience 
and of all common-sense when we say, the gospel alone 
produced them, and the gospel alone could produce them ; 
and should the gospel be thoroughly conformed to in all 
the world, the whole world would be morally renovated, 
and all those physical evils which proceed from the vices 
of mankind would pass away.”’ 


ADOLPHE MONOD. 


Adolphe Monod, a distinguished Protestant pastor of 
the Oratoire in Paris, relates the following circumstance, 

showing the great power of the Bible over the juvenile 
mind when rightly used by a pious mother: 

“The mother of a family was married to an infidel, 
who made a jest of religion in the presence of his own 
children; yet she succeeded in bringing them all up in 
the fear of the Lord. She was one day asked, how she 
preserved them from the influence of a father whose 
sentiments were so openly opposed to her own. ‘This 
was her answer: ‘Because to the authority of a father, 
I did not oppose the authority of a mother, but that of 
God. From their earliest years, my children have always 
seen the Bible upon my table. This Holy Book has con- 
stituted the whole of their religious instruction. I was 
silent that I might allow it to speak. Did they propose 
a question, did they commit any fault, did they perform 
any good action, I opened the Bible, and the Bible 


78 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


answered, reproved, or encouraged them. The constant 
reading of the Scriptures has alone wrought the prodigy 
which appears so surprising.’ ”’ 


WILLIAM PALEY. 


Archdeacon Paley, one of the great lights of the 
Church of England, has enriched the English language 
with some of its most valuable literature. His principal 
works are the Evidences of Christianity, Hore Pauline, 
Clergyman’s Companion, Sermons, Tracts, Natural The- 
ology, Moral and Political Philosophy. From the con- 
clusion to his Natural Theology, we make the following 
extracts : 

“Tf one train of thinking be more desirable than 
another, it is that which regards the phenomena of nature 
with a constant reference to a supreme intelligent 
Author. To have made this the ruling, the habitual 
sentiment of our minds, is to have laid the foundation of 
every thing which is religious. The world thenceforth 
becomes a temple, and life itself one continued act of 
adoration. The change is no less than this: that, 
whereas formerly God was seldom in our thoughts, we 
can now scarcely Jook upon any thing without perceiving 
its relation to him.” 

‘‘Under this stupendous Being we live. Our happi- 
ness, our existence, is in his hands. All we expect must 
come from him. Nor ought we to feel our situation in- 
secure. In every nature, and in every portion of nature, 
which we can desery, we find attention bestowed upon 
even the minutest parts. The hinges in the wings of 
an earwig, and the joints of its antenna, are as highly 
wrought, as if the Creator had nothing else to finish. 


ee PT ee ee 


OS 


a : . 
a eS ee Se eee eee 


=a. 


Clergymen. 79 


We sze no signs of diminution of care by multiplicity of 
objects, or of distraction of thought by variety. We 
have no reason to fear, therefore, our being forgotten, or 
overlooked, or neglected.” 

‘The existence and character of the Deity, is, in every 
view, the most interesting of all human speculations. 
In none, however, is it more so, than as it facilitates the 
belief of the fundamental articles of revelation. Itis a 
step to have it proved, that there must be something in 
the world more than we see. It is a farther step to 
know, that, amongst the invisible things of nature, there 
must be an intelligent mind concerned in its production, 
order, and support. These points being assured to us 
by natural theology, we may well leave to revelation the 
disclosure of many particulars, which our researches can 
not reach, respecting either the nature of this Being, as 
the original cause of all things, or his character and 
designs as a moral governor ; and not only so, but the 
more full confirmation of other. particulars, of which, 
though they do not lie altogether beyond our reasonings 
and our probabilities, the certainty is by no means equal 
to the importance. The true theist will be the first to 
listen to any credible communication of Divine knowl- 
edge. Nothing which he has learnt from natural theology 
will diminish his desire of further instruction, or his dis- 
position to receive it with humility and thankfulness. 
He wishes for light: he rejoices in light. His inward 
veneration of the great Being will incline him to attend 
with the utmost seriousness, not only to all that can be 
discovered concerning him by researches into nature, but 
to all that is taught by a revelation, which gives reason- 
able proof of having proceeded from him.” 


80 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


THEODORE PARKER. 


Amongst Unitarian clergymen, Theodore Parker was 
one of the freest, both in thought and action. Some of 
his theological utterances were objectionable even to his 
friends and admirers; yet his eulogy on the Bible is 
entitled to the warmest commendation by all. He says: 

“This collection of books has taken such hold of the 
world as no other. The literature of Greece, which goes 
up like incense from that land of temples and heroic 
deeds, has not half the influence of this book from a 
nation despised alike in ancient and modern times. It 
is read in all the ten thousand pulpits of our land. In 
all the temples of Christendom is its voice lifted up week 
by week. The sun never sets on its glowing page. It 
goes equally to the cottage of the plain man and the 
palace of the king. It is woven into the literature of the 
scholar, and colors the talk of the street. It enters 
men’s closets, mingles in all the grief and cheerfulness of 
life. The Bible attends men in sickness, when the fever 
of the world is on them. ‘The aching head finds a softer 
pillow when the Bible lies underneath. The mariner, 
escaping from shipwreck, seizes it the first of his treas- 
ures, and keeps it sacred to God. It blesses us when we 
are born, gives names to half of Christendom, rejoices with 
us, has sympathy for our mourning, tempers our grief to 
finer issues. Itis the better part of our sermons. It 
lifts man above himself. Our best of uttered prayers are 
in its storied speech, wherewith our fathers and the 
patriarchs prayed. The timid man, about to awake from 
his dream of life, looks through the glass of Scripture, 
and his eyes grow bright; he does not fear to stand 


Clergymen. 81 


alone, to tread the way unknown and distant, to take the 
death-angel by the hand, and bid farewell to wife and 
babes and home. Men rest on this their dearest hopes. 
It tells them of God and his blessed Son, of earthly 
duties and heavenly rest. Foolish men find in it the 
source of Plato’s wisdom, of the science of Newton, and 
the art of Raphael. 

‘Now, for such effects there must be an adequate 
cause. It is no light thing to hold, with an electric 
chain, 2 thousand hearts, though but an hour, beating 
and bounding with such fiery speed; what is it, then, to 
hold the Christian world, and that for centuries? Are 
men fed with chaff and husks? The authors we reckon 
great, whose articulate breath now sways the nation’s 
mind, will soon pass away, giving place to other great 
men of a season, who in their turn shall follow them to 
eminence, and then to oblivion. Some thousand famous 
writers come up in this century, to be forgotten in the 
next. But the silver cord of the Bible is not loosed, nor 
its golden bowl broken, as Time chronicles his tens of 
centuries passed by. Fire acts as a refiner of metals: 
the dross is piled in forgotten heaps, but the pure gold is 
reserved for use, and. is current a thousand years hence 
as well as to-day. Itis only real merit that can long 
pass for such; tinsel will rust in the storms of life; false 
weights are soon detected there. It is only a heart can 
speak to a heart, a mind to a mind, a soul to a soul, 
wisdom to the wise, and religion to the pious. There 
must, then, be in the Bible, mind, heart, and soul, 
wisdom, and religion: were it otherwise, how could mill- 
ions find it their lawgiver, friend, and prophet? Some 
of the greatest of human institutions seem built on the 


82 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


Bible; such things will not stand on chaff, but on moun- 
tains of rock. What is the secret cause of this wide and 
deep influence? It must be found in the Bible itself, 
and must be adequate to the effect.” 


JAMES PARSONS. 


Rey. James Parsons, for many years an eloquent and 
devoted minister of the Independents at the city of 
York, England, was educated for the profession of law; 
but by the death of a pious mother, he was brought to 
serious reflection, and turned his attention to the minis- 
try. Ina sermon preached by him to the young, when 
speaking of the vast superiority of the pleasures of 
religion to those of the world, he says : 

‘Allow me to speak to you, to whom life is in a 
measure untried, as one who himself can give the testi- 
mony. I speak that I do know, and testify that I have 
seen; and I speak what it is certain others could testify 
too. Ihave been in different courses, and have sought 
for enjoyment in difierent paths. I have sought it in 
mirth, and gayety, and amusements ; I have sought it in 
plans and purposes of ambition, and in the imagination 
of schemes of worldly aggrandizement and honor; I have 
sought it in the occupations of study, conversing on the 
page of history with generations that have gone, or 
mingling in the magic enchantments of poetry, or at- 
tempting the more laborious pursuits of intellectual 
inquiry; and I have sought it in the service of God. 
And here the craving appetite has found its food; and 
here the restless and anxious heart has found its peace 
and joy. Like the philosopher of old, but in an applica- 
tion far more exalted, I can say, ‘I have found it! I 


Clergymen. 83 


have found it!’—in the service of God I am happy; and 
if I served him more I should be happier still. To be 
as once I was,1 would not for all the gold of every 
earthly mine, or all the gems of every ocean cave. I 
come forth in the service of God to proffer the same 
boon to you, that thus we may together rejoice with ‘joy 
unspeakable and full of glory.’” 


FREDERICK W. ROBERTSON, A.M. 


One of the most eloquent eulogies on the Bible that 
was ever uttered, is from the pen of Rev. F. W. Robert- 
son, a distinguished clergyman of the Church of England. 
It is as follows: 

“Tt is the universal applicability of Scripture which 
has made the influence of the Bible universal. This 
book has spell-bound the hearts of nations in a way in 
which no single book has ever held men before. Remem- 
ber too, in order to enhance the marvelousness of this, 
that the nation from which it emanated was a despised 
people. For the last eighteen hundred years, the Jews 
have been proverbially a byword and a reproach. But 
that contempt for Israel is nothing new to the world, for 
before even the Roman despised them, the Assyrian and 
Egyptian regarded them with scorn. Yet the words 
which came from Israel’s prophets have been the life- 
blood of the world’s devotions. And the teachers, the 
psalmists, the prophets, and the lawgivers of this de- 
spised nation spoke out truths that have struck the 
key-note of the heart of man; and this, not because 
they were of Jewish, but because they were of universal 
application. This collection of books has been to the 
world what no other book has ever been to a nation. 


84 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


States have been founded on its principles. Kings rule 
by a compact based on it. Men hold the Bible in their 
hands when they prepare to give solemn evidence affect- 
ing life, death, or property ; the sick man is almost afraid 
to die unless the Book be within reach of his hands; the 
battle-ship goes into action.with one on board whose 
office it is to expound it; its prayers, its psalms are the 
language which we use when we speak to God; eighteen 
centuries have found no holier, no diviner language. If 
ever there has been a prayer or a hymn enshrined in the 
heart of a nation, you are sure to find its basis in the 
Bible. The very translation of it has fixed language and 
settled the idioms of speech. Germany and England 
speak as they speak because the Bible was translated. 
It has made the most illiterate peasant more familiar with 
the history, customs, and geography of ancient Palestine 
than with the localities of his own country. Men who 
know nothing of the Grampians, of Snowdon, or of 
Skiddaw, are at home in Zion, the lake of Gennesareth, 
or among the rills of Carmel. People who know little 
about London, know by heart the places in Jerusalem 
where those blessed feet trod which were nailed to the 
cross. Men who know nothing of the architecture of a 
Christian cathedral, can yet tell you about the pattern of 
the holy Temple. Even this shows us the influence of 
the Bible. The orator holds a thousand men for half an 
hour breathless—a thousand men as one, listening to a 
single word. But the Word of God has held a thousand 
nations for thrice a thousand years spell-bound; held 
them by an abiding power, even the universality of its 
truth; and we feel it to be no more a collection of books, 
but the Book.” 


Clergymen. 85 


MATTHEW SIMPSON, D.D., LL.D. 


Bishop Simpson was one of the most eloquent and 
devoted ministers of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 
As a citizen, he was highly esteemed: during the Union’s 
fearful hour of danger, he plead, before large popular 
audiences, with all the power of his oratory, for its pre- 
servation and perpetuity. He traveled extensively 
abroad, and records this as the result of his observation: 
‘‘ Wherever God’s word is circulated it stirs the hearts 
of the people, it prepares for public morals. Circulate 
that word, and you find the tone of morals immediately 
changed. It is God speaking to man.” 

The duty of the Church to work for the world’s reform, 
the Bishop expresses in the following earnest language: 
“The Church must grope her way into the alleys and 
courts and purlieus of the city, and up the broken stair- 
case, and into the bare room, and beside the loathsome 
sufferer ; she must go down into the pit with the miner, 
into the forecastle with the sailor, into the tent with the 
soldier, into the shop with the mechanic, into the factory 
with the operative, into the field with the farmer, into 
the counting-room with the merchant. Like the air, the 
Church must press equally on all the surfaces of society ; 
like the sea, flow into every nook of the shore-line of 
humanity; and, like the sun, shine on things foul and 
low as well as fair and high, for she was organized, com- 
missioned, and equipped for the moral renovation of the 
world.” 

CHARLES H. SPURGEON. 

Spurgeon, the celebrated Baptist preacher and ener- 

getic christian worker in London, thus speaks in his 


86 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


Treasury of David, of the completeness of the Word of 
God and the plan of salvation: “The Gospel is a com- 
plete scheme, or law of gracious salvation, presenting to 
the needy sinner every thing that his terrible necessities 
can possibly demand. There are no redundancies and 
no omissions in the Word of God, and in the plan of 
grace: why then do men try to paint this lily and gild 
this refined gold? The Gospel is perfect in all its parts, 
and perfect as a whole: it is a crime to add to it, treason 
to alter it, and felony to take from it.” 

Commenting on the passage, “ The words of the Lord 
are pure words, as silver is tried in a furnace of earth, 
purified seven times,’ Spurgeon says: “ For truth, cer- 
tainty, holiness, faithfulness, the words of the Lord are 
pure as well-refined silver. In the original, there is an 
allusion to the most severely-purifying process known to 
the ancients, through which silver was passed when the 
greatest possible purity was desired: the dross was all 
consumed, and only the bright and precious metal re- 
mained: so clear and free from all alloy of error or 
unfaithfulness is the Book of the words of the Lord. 
The Bible has passed through the furnace of persecution, 
literary criticism, philosophic doubt, and scientific dis- 
covery, and has lost nothing but those human interpre- 
tations which clung to it as alloy to precious ore. The 
experience of saints has tried it in every conceivable 
manner, but not a single doctrine or promise has been 
consumed in the most excessive heat.” 


JOSIAH STRONG, D.D. 


Dr. Strong, General Secretary of the Evangelical 
Alliance for the United States, has recently published a 


Clergymen., 87 


most valuable book, entitled, Our Country, its Possible 
Future and Its Present Crisis. In the work, he shows 
the difference between the Christian settlements and in- 
fidel settlements of a new territory. In some prelimin- 
ary remarks, he says: 

“Communities and commonwealths, like men, have 
their childhood, which is the formative period. It is the 
first permanent settlers who impress themselves and their 
character on the future. Powerful.influences may, in 
later years, produce important modifications; but it is 
early influence which is farthest reaching, and is gen- 
erally decisive. It is easier to form than to reform; 
easier to mold molten iron than to file the cold cast. 

‘“‘ Look at a few illustrations of the above truths. On 
the Western Reserve [of Ohio] are two adjoining town- 
ships, which were settled by men of radically different 
character. The southern township was founded by a far- 
seeing and devoted home missionary. He had become 
convinced that he could do more to establish Christian 
institutions on the Reserve ‘by one conspicuous example 
of a well-organized and well-Christianized township, with 
all the best arrangements and appliances of New England 
civilization, than by many years of desultory effort in the 
way of missionary labor.’ The settlers were carefully se- 
lected. None but professing Christians were to become 
land-holders. As soon as a few families had moved into 
the township, public worship was commenced, and has 
ever since been maintained without interruption. A 
church was organized under the roof of the first log cabin. 
At the center of the township, where eight roads meet, 
was located the church building, fitly representing the 
central place occupied by the service of God in the life 


88 Testimonies in Favor of Leligion and the Bible. 


of the colony. Soon followed the school-house and the 
public library. And there, in the midst of the uncon- 
quered forest, only eight years after the first white set- 
tlement, the people, Sih of higher education, and 
true to their New England antecedents, planted an 
academy. At a very early period, several benevolent 
societies were organized, and here was opened the first 
school for the deaf and dumb in the State of Ohio. 

‘The northern township was first settled by an infidel, 
who seems to have given to the community not only his 
name, but, in large measure, his character also. He 
naturally attracted men of the same sort. He expressed 
the desire that there might never be a Christian church 
in the township; and, so far as I know, there has never 
been organized within its limits an Evangelical church. 
Though one of the best colleges in the West was founded 
within five miles, I am unable to learn that any young 
man from this township has ever taken a college course. 
A few* have entered professional life, none of whom 
has gained a wide reputation. On the other hand, the 
southern township is widely known to-day for its moral . 
and religious character, its wealth + and liberality, and for 
the exceptionally large number of young men and women 
it sends to colleges and seminaries. It has furnished 
many members of the state legislature and senate. It 
has been fruitful of ministers and educators, some of 


*“T can gain definite knowledge of only seven, though it is 
quite likely there have been more.’ 

+ “Though the northern township had the advantage of a 
better soil, the assessed valuation of real and personal property 
in the southern now exceeds that of the other by fifty-six per 
cent. ‘Godliness is profitable to the life that now a 


Clergymen. 89 


whom have gained a national reputation. From this 
little village of a few hundred inhabitants have gone 
forth men to college professorships east and west, to the 
Supreme Bench of the state, and to the United States 
Congress. The general character of these two townships 
was fixed at the beginning of the century. Their found- 
ers placed a stamp upon them which abides.” 


THOMAS DE WITT TALMAGH, D.D. 


Dr. Talmage is Presbyterian pastor of the Brooklyn 
Tabernacle. For several years he edited the Christian 
at Work. He is a popular lecturer. His sermons are 
extensively circulated by the secular press. The fol- 
lowing are a few condensed extracts from his sermon on 
The Book. 

“For years I have heard many complaints made 
against the Bible. I have classified them, and find them 
to be four: The Bible is impure, cruel, contradictory, 
and unscientific. 

“Ts the Bible impure? I lay it down as a principle 
that an impure book will have impure results. Of all 
your friends, how many have had their purity of soul 
stained or tarnished’ by scriptural perusal? Two hun- 
dred million copies of an impure book scattered through 
Christendom—there must be a great many victims. 
Show me one. I do not confine you to your own times. 
Range through all the four thousand years that have 
passed, and show me one soul whose chastity and purity 
have been despoiled and ruined by Bible reading. So far 
from the Bible being an impure book, you know that it is 
only where the Bible reigns that the family institution is 

8 


90 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


regarded. The only difference between Sodom, Con- 
stantinople, Pekin and Madras on the one side, and our 
American cities on the other, in regard to the status of 
purity or impurity, is the difference between Bible and 
no Bible. . 

“The second complaint is, that the Bible is cruel. 
You have known a great many people who have had this 
book in their hands. Was its effect upon them to send 
them to vivisection and maltreatment? If the Bible is 
cruel, why does it not show its cruelty in that direction? 
So far from its being true, all the asylums and institu- 
tions of mercy in this country have been founded by the 
Bible believers. Look at those twenty Christian women 
in a hospital. They are washing wounds, they are 
administering cordials, they are taking the last message 
of the expiring. Those Christian women have been 
reading this book all their lives, and now they are read- 
ing it to the sick and the dying. At what point does the 
cruelty of this book crop out in the life of that minister- 
ing angel in the hospital? Do you find it in the 
geutleness of her step, or in the soft cadence of her 
voice, or in her prayer for the dying: ‘Lord Jesus, re- 
ceive my spirit?’ When you can make a rose-leaf 
pierce like a bayonet, when you can make icicles out of 
the south wind, when you can poison the tongue with 
honey made out of blossoming buckwheat, then you can 
find people practicing cruelty learned from the Bible. 

“The third complaint is, the Bible is contradictory. Its 
enemies put apostle against apostle, and prophet against 
prophet, and say, ‘If this passage is true, how can that 
passage be true? The whole book is a mass of contra- 
dictions.’ Mr. Mill, a friend of the Bible, translated 


- 


Clergymen. 91 


the New Testament, and he declared that he had found 
thirty thousand different readings, but these different 
readings were unimportant, and were very small differ- 
ences, and were to be accounted for on the ground that 
the Bible had come down from generation to generation, 
and had been copied by a great many different hands; 
and it is not surprising that here and there a word is 
changed; but about the great doctrines of the Bible 
there is no difference. All the sacred writers agree in 
these doctrines: God is good, holy, wise, just, omnipo- 
tent; man is a lost sinner; Christ is all-glorious, inviting 
the whole world to be saved. Two destinies—one for 
believers, and the other for unbelievers. About these 
doctrines there is perfect harmony. Mozart, Beethoven, 
Handel, Haydn, never wrote or heard more complete 
harmony. Is it not wonderful that this Bible, written 
by scores of men living in different lands, living in 
different ages, some of them having no communication 
with each other, and having no idea of the general design 
of the Bible, after their fragments of work are brought 
from these different lands and ages, and are put together, 
should make a complete book, a book so harmonious that 
the best scholars of our day pronounce it a complete 
harmony ? 
“The fourth complaint is, that the Bible is unscientific. 
Who made you believe that there is an unbridgable chasm 
between the Bible and science? Stuart Mill,- Darwin, 
Tyndall, Renan? I will give you the names of men 
who believe otherwise: Herschell, Kepler, Leibnitz, 
Newton. These men found a perfect harmony between 
science and the Bible. The fact is, science is a mere 
boy and revelation a full-grown man ; after science has 


92 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


been growing and learning as long as revelation has been 
established, perhaps it may know as much. I say, per- 
haps. If at any time you should find a seeming disparity 
between science and revelation, your common sense 
would demand that you should wait until science is more 
thoroughly developed. The temple of the universe has 
two orchestras—the orchestra of revelation and the 
orchestra of science. The former has all its musical 
strings strung, and it is ready for the burst of eternal 
accord. ‘The latter is only stringing its instruments. 
Wait and be patient. After awhile you will find twisted 
into the same wreath the rose of Sharon and the laurel 
of scholarly achievement, and the roar of the sea will 
be the magnificent bass of the temple of worshipers, 
and the earth will be found to be only the pedals of an 
organ of which the heavens are the key-board.” 


RICHARD WATSON. 


One of the most illustrious divines of the Wesleyan | 
Methodist Church in England was Richard Watson. In 
him great talents and true piety were alike conspicuous. 
His published sermons are distinguished for true logic 
and fine rhetoric, as well as sound theology. Rey. 
Robert Hall, a most competent judge, pronounced him 
an incomparable preacher. His Biblical and Theological 
Dictionary, and his Exposition of some of the Gospels, 
are greatly admired for the valuable religious information 
they furnish.’ His Theological Institutes, or a View of 
the Evidences, Doctrines, Morals, and Institutions, of 
Christianity, is one of the most learned and exhaustive 
works ever published. From his sermon on the inspired 


Clergymen. 93 


words, “‘ Honor all men,” we make the following eloquent 
extract : 

“T Jove these brief and general sentiments of benevolence 
which come upon us so suddenly and with such frequency 
in the New Testament. They show fullness, and the full- 
ness of amore than human kindness. If uninspired man 
had uttered them, he would have felt them to be so novel, 
so far removed out of the common course of the thoughts 
and feelings of mankind, and would have anticipated so 
many objections, that he must have thought it necessary 
to accompany them with the ingenuity of apology and 
the labor of argument. But their very manner shows 
that they come from God. It is for him to be authori- 
tative; and they are uttered in the appropriate form of 
law: it is in him only that goodness exists in infinite 
fullness; and these precepts of charity are its affecting 
manifestations, the gushings of that yearning tenderness 
with which he regards all his creatures. O God! it is 
from thee that we learn to love one another; to love man, 
because thou lovest him; to ‘honor him,’ because ‘thou 
hast set thy heart upon him.’ When from these views 
and principles we go forth into the world, what contrasts 
do we behold! Is man loved and honored by man? The 
fiercest beasts of the gloomy forest are not to him what 
he is to his kind: theirs is the ferocity of hunger, his 
that of malignity ; theirs is appetite, his is passion. But 
there is a redeeming power at work in our world; and 
that is, the Word of the Living God, the Gospel of peace 
and salvation. Wherever that comes, it isa shield to the 
defenseless and a refuge for the oppressed. Orphans 
find in it a Father, widows a Husband, slaves a Master 
in heaven, the wronged and spurned ‘a Judge in his holy 


94 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


habitation.’ What sorrows has it cheered! what injuries 
has it arrested! what benevolent creations has it spread 
around us! How soft are its tones of pity! how loud 
its denunciations of wrong and violence! The yearnings 
of philanthropy, the ardor of missionary zeal, the active 
love of our neighbor, the awful equity of law, the loftiness | 
of patriotism, are all its own. These are the blessings 
which it has conferred at home, and these are the effects 
which it is working abroad. With this high commission, 
it is charged by its Divine Author to visit every land, 
‘to comfort all that mourn, to appoint unto them beauty 
for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment 
of praise for the spirit of heaviness, to preach the ac- 
ceptable year of the Lord.’ O when shall this ‘ glorious 
Gospel of the blessed God’ dawn upon all lands? when 
shall it wipe away all tears? when shall floods clap their 
hands, and forests wave instinct with the universal glad- 
ness, and hills rejoice, and valleys sing, and the Gentiles 
of every lip and name ‘glorify God for his mercy!’ 
Said I,‘ When shall it dawn?’ Where is the land on 
which it dawns not? The illustrious morning breaks, 
and the shadows fly away! In the most distant wilder- 
nesses and deserts of the world, deserts never till of late 
vocal with the sound of salvation, the voice of the heralds 
of the universal Savior-King is at length heard: ‘ Prepare 
ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a 
highway for our God: every valley shall be exalted, and 
every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the 
crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places 
plain, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and 
all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord 
hath spoken it.’ ” 


Clergymen. 95 


JOHN WESLEY, A.M. 


To speak of the talents and labors of John Wesley 
would be a superfluity. All Christendom knows his 
remarkable history. The following quotation is taken 
from the preface to his Notes on the New Testament: 

“Concerning the Scriptures in general, it may be 
observed, the Word of the living God, which directed 
the first’ patriarchs also, was, in the time of Moses, 
committed to writing. To this were added, in several 
succeeding generations, the inspired writings of the other 
prophets. Afterward, what the Son of God preached, 
and the Holy Ghost spake by the apostles, the apostles 
and evangelists wrote. This is what we now style the 
Holy Scriptures: this is that ‘Word of God which 
remaineth forever:’ of which, though heaven and earth 
pass away, one jot or one tittle shall not passaway. The 
Scripture, therefore, of the Old and New Testament is a 
most solid and precious system of Divine Truth. Every 
part thereof is worthy of God; and altogether are one 
entire body, wherein is no defect, no excess. It is the 
fountain of heavenly wisdom, which they who are able to 
taste, prefer to all the writings of men, however wise, or 
learned, or holy. 

“ An exact knowledge of the truth was accompanied 
in the inspired writers with an exactly regular series of 
arguments, a precise expression of their meaning, and a 
genuine vigor of suitable affections. 

“In the language of the sacred writings, we may 
observe the utmost depth, together with the utmost ease. 
All the elegances of human composures sink into nothing 
before it. God speaks not as man, but as God. His 


96 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


thoughts are very deep, and thence his words are of 
inexhaustible virtue. And the language of his messen- 
gers also is exact in the highest degree; for the words 
which were given them, accurately answered the impres- 
sion made upon their minds; and hence Luther says, 
‘Divinity is nothing but a grammar of the language of 
the Holy Ghost.’ To understand this thoroughly, we 
should observe the emphasis which lies on every word; 
the holy affections expressed thereby, and the tempers 
shown by every writer. But how little are these, the 
latter especially, regarded! Though they are wonder- 
fully diffused through the whole New Testament, and are 
in truth a continued commendation of him, who acts, or 
speaks, or writes. 

“The New Testament is, all those sacred writings in 
which the New Testament or Covenant is described. 
The former part of this contains the writings of the 
evangelists and apostles; the latter, the revelation of 
Jesus Christ. In the former is, first, the history of Jesus 
Christ, from his coming in the flesh to his ascension into 
heaven; then, the institution and history of the Christian 
church, from the time of his ascension. The Revelation 
delivers what is to be, with regard to Christ, the Church, 
and the universe, till the consummation of all things.” 

In another part of the preface, Wesley utters some 
sentiments which should be the sentiments of every 
Christian writer: ‘I can not flatter myself so far as to 
imagine that I have fallen into no mistakes, in a work of 
so great difficulty. But my own conscience acquits me 
of having designedly misrepresented any single passage 
of Scripture, or of having written one line with the pur- 
pose of inflaming the hearts of Christians against each 


ree 


Clergymen. 97 


other. God forbid that I should make the words of the 
most gentle and benevolent Jesus a vehicle to convey 
such a poison. Would to God that all the party-names, 
and unscriptural phrases and forms, which have divided 
the Christian world, were forgot; and that we might all 
agree to sit down together, as humble, loving diciples, at 
the feet of our common Master, to hear his Word, to 
imbibe his Spirit, and to transcribe his life in our own!” 


HENRY B. WHIPPLE, D.D. 


Bishop Whipple, of the Protestant Episcopal Church, 
gives an instance of the difficulty in renouncing the 
Christian religion and embracing infidelity, that ought to 
carry conviction to every unconverted heart, and estab- 
lish every believer more fully in his faith. It is as 
follows : 

“JT once met a thoughtful scholar who told me that for 
years he had read every book which assailed the religion 
of Jesus Christ. He said that he should have become an 
infidel if it had not been for three things: 

“¢VFirst, lamaman. Iam going somewhere. I am 
to-night a day nearer the grave than last night. I have 
read all that they can tell me. ‘There is not one solitary 
ray of light upon the darkness. They shall not take away 
the only guide and leave me stone blind. 

““« Secondly, I had a mother. I saw her go down into 
the dark valley where I am going, and she leaned upon. 
an unseen Arm as calmly as a child goes to sleep upon 
the breast of a mother. I know that was not a dream. 

«¢Thirdly, he said with tears in his eyes, ‘I have 
three motherless daughters. They have no protector but 

Q | 7 


98 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


myself. I would rather kill them than leave them in this 
sinful world if you could blot out from it all the teach- 
ings of the Gospel.’ 

“Take away the Gospel, and what a mockery is human 
philosophy.” 


EDUCATORS. 


LOUIS J. R. AGASSIZ. 


Among the naturalists of the nineteenth century, no 
one has made more valuable contributions to science than 
Agassiz. First in Europe, and afterward in the United 
States, he was constantly at work, either in making in- 
vestigations, or imparting knowledge by lecturing, or 
teaching as Professor. He thus speaks of man’s sov- 
ereignty in creation: 

‘“‘Tt is evident that there is a manifest progress in the 
succession of beings on the surface of the earth. This 
progress consists in an increasing similarity to the living 
fauna, and among the vertebrates, especially in their in- 
creasing resemblance to man. But this connection is 
not the consequence of a direct lineage between the 
faunas of different ages. There is nothing like parental 
descent connecting them. The fishes of the Paleozoic 
age are in no respect the ancestors of the reptiles of the 
secondary age; nor does man descend from the mammals 
which preceded him in the Tertiary age. The link by 
which they are connected is of a higher and immaterial 
nature; and their connection is to be sought in the view 
of the Creator himself, whose aim in forming the earth, 
in allowing it to undergo the successive changes which 


Edueators. 99 


geology has pointed out, and in creating successively all 
the different types of animals which have passed away, 
was to introduce man upon the surface of our globe. 
Man is the end toward which all the animal creation has 
tended from the first appearance of the first Paleozoic 
fishes.” 

In one of his lectures delivered in Cambridge Univer- 
sity, before the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Agassiz 
Says : 

“That presentation of paleontological phenomena 
which would make it appear that the whole animal king- 
dom has been marshaled in a consecutive procession 
beginning with the lowest and ending with the highest, 
is false to nature. There is no inevitable repetition, no 
mechanical evolution in the geological succession of 
organic life. It has the correspondence of connected 
plan. It has just that kind of resemblance in the parts, 
so much and no more, as always characterizes intellectual 
work proceeding from the same source. It has that 
freedom of manifestation, that independence, which 
characterizes the work of Mind as compared with the 
work of law. I believe that all these correspondences 
between the different aspects of animal life are the mani- 
festations of Mind acting consciously with intention 
toward one object from beginning to end. This view is 
in accordance with the working of our minds; it is an 
instinctive recognition of a mental power with which 
our own is akin, manifesting itself in nature. For this 
reason more than any other, perhaps, do I hold that this 
world of ours is not the result of the action of wncon- 
scious organic forces, but the work of an Intelligent, Con- 
scious Power.” 


100 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


In his Methods of Study in Natural History, Agassiz 
Says: 

“Tt is my belief that naturalists are chasing a phantom 
in their search after some material gradation among 
created beings, by which the whole animal kingdom may 
have been derived by successive development from a 
single germ, or from a few germs. It would seem from 
the frequency with which this notion is revived,—ever 
returning upon us with hydra-headed tenacity of life, and 
presenting itself under a new form as soon as the pre- 
ceding one has been exploded and set aside,—that it has 
a certain fascination for the human mind. This arises, 
perhaps, from the desire to explain the secret of our own 
existence—to have some simple and easy solution of the 
fact that we live. I confess that there seems to me to be 
a repulsive poverty in this material explanation, that is 
contradicted by the intellectual grandeur of the universe: 
the resources of the Deity can not be so meager that, in 
order to create a human being endowed with reason, He 
must change a monkey intoa man.” “ I nevertheless in- 
sist that this theory is opposed to the processes of Nature, 
as far as we have been able to apprehend them; that it is 
contradicted by the facts of embryology and paleontology, 
the former showing us norms of development as distinct 
and persistent for each group as are the fossil types of 
each period revealed to us by the latter; and that the 
experiments upon domesticated animals and cultivated 
plants, on which its adherents base their views, are en- 
tirely foreign to the matter in hand, since the varieties 
thus brought about by the fostering care of man are of an 
entirely different character from those observed among 
wild species. And while their positive evidence is inap- 


Educators. 101 


plicable, their negative evidence is equally unsatisfactory, 
since, however long and frequent the breaks in the geo- 
logical series may be in which they would fain bury their 
transition types, there are many points in the succession 
where the connection is perfectly distinct and unbroken, 
and it is just at these points that new organic groups are 
introduced without any intermediate forms to link them 
with the preceding ones.” 

“T can not repeat too emphatically that there is not a 
single fact in embryology to justify the assumption that 
the laws of development, now known to be so precise and 
definite for every animal, have ever been less so, or have 
ever been allowed to run into each other. The philoso- 
pher’s stone is no more to be found in the organic than 
the inorganic world ; and we shall seek as vainly to trans- 
form the lower animal types into the higher ones by any 
of our theories, as did the alchemists of old to change 
the baser metals into gold.” ‘Classification, rightly 
understood, means simply the creative plan of God, as 
expressed in organic forms.” “Breeds among animals 
are the work of man; species were created by God.” 

In his Essay on Classification, Agassiz remarks: 

‘Nothing is more striking throughout the animal and 
vegetable kingdoms, than the unity of plan in the struc- 
ture of the most diversified types. From pole to pole, 
in every longitude, mammalia, birds, reptiles, and fishes, 
exhibit one and the same plan of structure, involving 
abstract conceptions of the highest order, far transcend- 
ing the broadest generalizations of man,—for it is only 
after the most laborious investigations that man has ar- 
rived at an imperfect understanding of this plan ; and yet 
this logical connection, these beautiful harmonies, this 


102 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


infinite diversity in unity, are represented by some as 
the result of forces exhibiting no trace of intelligence, 
no power of thinking, no faculty ot combination, no 
knowledge of time and space. If there is any thing which 
places man above all other beings in nature, it is pre- 
ciscly the circumstance that he possesses those noble 
attributes, without which, in their most exalted excel- 
lence and perfection, not one of these traits of relation- 
ship so characteristic of the great type of the animal and 
vegetable kingdoms can be understood or even perceived. 
How, then, could these relations have been devised with- 
out similar powers? If all these relations are almost 
beyond the reach of the mental powers of man, and if man 
himself is part and parcel of the whole system, how could 
this system have been called into existence if there does 
not exist One Supreme Intelligence as the Author of all 
things.” 
THOMAS ARNOLD, D.D. 

No educator in England was more successful in the 
great work of training mind than Dr. T. Arnold. The 
real secret of his success was his constant application of 
the vital principles of Christianity to his daily labors. 
His first object was to make his pupils Christians; then, 
gentlemen; and lastly, scholars. He was the author of 
several works—one a History of Rome. His opinion of 
the Bible is seen in the following truthful remark : 

“A man’s love of Scripture at the beginning of a 
religious course, is such as to make the praise which 
older Christians give to the Bible seem exaggerated ; but 
after twenty or thirty years of a religious life, such 
praise sounds inadequate. Its glories seem so much 
more full than they seemed at first.” 


Educators. 103 


Dr. Arnold thus expresses himself on the duty of all 
classes laboring to promote universal Christian educa- 
tion : 

“The great work of Christian education is not the 
direct and certain fruit of building schools and engaging 
schoolmasters, but something far beyond—to be com- 
passed only by the joint efforts of all the whole church 
and nation; by the schoolmaster and the parent, by the 
school-fellow at school, and by the brothers and sisters 
at home; by the clergyman in his calling, by the land- 
lord in his calling, by the farmer and the tradesman, by 
the laborer and the professional man, and the man of 
independent income, whether large or small, in theirs; 
by the queen and her ministers, by the great council of 
the nation in parliament; by each and all of these labor- 
ing to remove temptations to evil, to make good easier 
and more honored, to confirm faith and holiness in others 
by their own example; ina word, to make men love and 
glorify their God and Savior when they see the blessed 
fruits of his kingdom even here on earth.” 


FRANCIS BOWEN, A.M., LL.D. 


Dr. Bowen, a writer of great ability and research, is 
Professor of Natural Religion and Moral Philosophy in 
Harvard University, and author of a work entitled 
Modern Philosophy, from Descartes to Schopenhauer 
and Hartman. After having traversed all the regions of 
subtlety and transcendentalism through which it was 
necessary for him to pass in order to complete his work, 
he gives the following as the result of his undertaking: 

« Harnestly desiring to avoid prejudice on either side, 
and to welcome evidence and argument from whatever 


104 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


source they might come, without professional bias and 
free from any external inducement to teach one set of 
opinions rather than another, I have faithfully studied 
most of what the philosophy of these modern times and 
the science of our own day assume to teach. And the 
result is that I am now more fully convinced than ever 
that what has been justly called ‘the dirt philosophy’ of 
materialism and fatalism is baseless and false. I accept 
with unhesitating conviction and belief the doctrine of 
one personal God, the creator and governor of the world, 
and of our Lord Jesus Christ in whom ‘ dwelleth all the 
fullness of the Godhead bodily,’ and I have found noth- 
ing whatever in the literature of modern infidelity which 
to my mind casts even the slightest doubt upon that 
belief. Not being a clergyman, I am not exposed to the 
cruel imputation, which unbelievers have too long been 
permitted to fling against the clergy, of being induced 
by prudential motives to profess what they do not believe. 
Let me be permitted also to repeat the opinion which I 
ventured to express as far back as 1849, that the time 
seems to have arrived for a more practical and immediate 
verification than the world has ever yet witnessed of the 
great truth that civilization which is not based upon 
Christianity is big with the elements of its own destruc- 
tion.” 
ALEXANDER CAMPBELL, D.D. 

Alexander Campbell, President of Bethany College, 
Virginia, at the close of his celebrated debate held in 
Cincinnati, in 1829, with Robert Owen, of Scotland, on 
the Social System, and the Systems of Skepticism of 
Ancient and Modern Times, made the following eloquent 
and truthful remarks on the triumphs of skepticism and 


Educators. 105 


the triumphs of Christianity. On the triumphs of 
skepticism, he said: 

“‘ When skepticism triumphs in any heart, the hope of 
immortality is banished. It crowns the tyrant Death for- 
ever on his throne, and seals the conquests of the grave 
over the whole human race. It wraps the tomb in 
eternal darkness, and suffers not one particle of the 
remains of the great, the wise, and the good of all ages, 
to see the light of eternity; but consigns, by an irre- 
versible doom, all that was admired, loved, and revered in 
man, to perpetual annihilation. It identifies human ex- 
istence with the vilest reptile, and levels man to the 
grade of the meanest weed, whose utility is yet undis- 
covered. Man’s origin and his destiny are to its ken 
alike fortuitous, unimportant, and uninteresting. Hav- 
ing robbed him of every thing which could make him 
dear to himself and proud of his existence, it murders 
all his hopes of future being and future bliss. It cuts 
the cable and casts away the golden anchor ; it sets man 
adrift on the mighty, unfathomable, and unexplored 
ocean of uncertainty, to become the sport of the wind 
and waves of animal passion and appetite; until, at last, 
in some tremendous gust, ‘he sinks to everlasting ruin.’ 
Say, then, proud reasoner, of what utility is your phi- 
losophy? What your boast ? 

‘¢ You boast that you have made man ignorant of his 
origin and a stranger to himself. You boast that you 
have deprived him of any real superiority over the bee, 
the bat, or the beaver; that you have divested him of 
the highest inducements to a virtuous life, by taking 
away the knowledge of God and the hope of heaven. 
You boast that you have made Death triumphant, not 


106 Testimonics in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


only over the body, but the intellectual dignity of man; 
and that you have buried his soul and body in the grave 
of an eternal sleep, never to see the light of life again! 
O skepticism! is this thy philosophy ?—is this thy 
boasted victory over the Bible? And for this extinguish- 
ment of light and life eternal, what dost thou teach and 
what bestow? Thou teachest us to live according to our 
appetites, and dost promise us that in thy Millennium 
man shall live in a Paradise of colonies, almost as in- 
dustrious, as independent, and as social as the bees. 
Well then dost thou preach with zeal, and exert thy 
energies; for thy heaven is worthy of thy efforts, and 
the purity of thy life is just adapted to the high hopes of 
eternal annihilation.” 

On the triumphs of Christianity, Campbell says: 

“A true believer and practitioner of the Christian 
religion, is completely and perfectly divested of a guilty 
conscience, and the consequent fear of death. The very 
end and intention of God’s being manifest in the flesh, 
in the person of Jesus our Saviour, was to deliver them, 
‘who through fear of death, were all their lifetime sub- 
ject to slavery.’ Jesus has done this. He has abolished 
death, and brought life and immortality to light. He has 
given strength to his disciples to vanquish death, and 
make them triumph over the grave; so that a living ora 
dying christian can with truth say,‘O Death! where now 
is thy sting? O Grave! where now thy victory?’ He 
conquered both, and by faith in him we conquer both. 
This is the greatest victory that ever was obtained. To see 
a christian conquer him who had for ages conquered all, 
is the sublimest scene ever witnessed by human eyes. 
And this may be seen as often as we see a true christian 


Educators. 107 


die. I know that a perverted system of christianity in- 
spires its votaries with the fear of death, because it 
makes doubt and fears christian virtues. But this re- 
ligion is not of God. His Son died that we might not 
fear to dic; and he went down to the grave to show us 
the path up to life again, and thus to make us victorious 
over the king of tyrants, and the tyrant over kings. 
They understand not his religion, who are not triumphant 
over those guilty fears. The guilty only can fear, and 
the guilty are not acquainted with the character, mission, 
and achievements of Jesus, our life. No one taught of 
God can fear these horrors of the wicked. Jesus Christ 
made no covenant with death; he signed no articles of 
capitulation with the horrible destroyer. He took his 
armor away, he bound him in an invincible chain, and 
taught him only to open the door of immortality to all 
his friends. 

“A christian, then, must triumph and always rejoice. 
Our gloomy systems say, Rejoice not always, but afflict 
your souls; whereas the Apostles say, Rejoice in the 
Lord always; and again we say, Rejoice. The gospel, . 
as defined by the angels of God, is, Glad Tidings of 
Great Joy; and who can believe glad tidings of great 
joy, and not rejoice? Deists, Atheists, and the whole 
host of skeptics may doubt, for this 1s their whole 
system; the wicked, the guilty, and the vile may fear, 
for this is the natural issue of their lives; but how a 
christian knowing the Lord, believing the promises, and 
confiding in the achievements of the Saviour, can doubt 
or fear as respects death or the grave, is inconceivable. 
Thanks be to God who gives us the victory ! 

“Some persons may doubt whether they are chris- 


108 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


tians; and some may fear the pain of dying as they 
would the toothache, or a dislocated joint; but that a 
christian should fear either death or the grave, is out of 
character altogether. For this is the very drift, scope, 
and end of his religion. They who are under the influ- 
ence of such fears and doubts, have much reason to fear 
and doubt whether ever they have known or believed the 
truth—the gospel of salvation. But a christian in fact, 
or one who deserves the name, is made to rejoice and 
triumph in the prospects of death and the grave. And 
why? Because his Lord has gone before him: because 
his rest, his home, his eternal friends and associates, his 
heaven, his God, all his joys are beyond the grave. Not 
to know this, is to be ignorant of the favor of God: not 
to believe this, is to doubt the philanthropy of God: not 
to rejoice in this, is to reject the gospel, and to judge 
ourselves unworthy of eternal life. But the christian 
religion is not to be reproached because of the ignorance 
or unbelief of those who profess it. All rivers do not 
more naturally run down the declivities and wind their 
courses to the ocean, than the christian religion leads its 
followers to the sure, and certain, and triumphant hopes 
of immortality.” 
GEORGE COMBE. 

The ablest writer on Phrenology was George Combe. 
His work, entitled the Constitution of Man, aside from 
its phrenological teachings, contains a large amount of 
valuable information ‘He thus speaks of the elevating 
influence of the Christian religion: 

“The man who cultivates his intellect, and habitually 
obeys the precepts of Christianity, will enjoy within 
himself a fountain of moral and intellectual happiness, 


Educators. 109 


which is the appropriate reward of that obedience. By 
these means he will be rendered more capable of study- 
ing, comprehending, and obeying the physical and 
organic laws, of placing himself in harmony with the 
whole order of creation, and of attaining the highest 
degree of perfection, and reaping the highest degree of 
happiness, of which human nature in this world is sus- 
ceptible.” 
JOHN W. DAWSON, LL.D., F.R.S. 

Dr. John W. Dawson, Principal of McGill College, 
Montreal, has given great attention to science, and ren- 
dered valuable service to geology. The following is the 
closing sentence of his work entitled, Nature and the 
Bible: 

“¢ And, finally, I may state, as the conclusion of the 
whole matter, that the Bible contains within itself all 
that, under God, is required to account for and dispose 
of all forms of infidelity, and to turn to the best and 
highest uses all that man can learn of nature.” 


WILHELM M. L. DE WETTE. 


Among the Biblical critics and theological professors 
of Germany, no one probably had a keener intellect, a 
larger amount of learning, or a greater independency of 
thought than De Wette, yet he bowed with reverence to 
the authority of the divine Teacher. In the preface to 
his Commentary on the Book of Revelations, published 
just before his death, he says: 

“This only I know, that there is salvation in no other 
name than in the name of Jesus Christ, the Crucified, 
and that nothing offers itself to humanity than the 
God-manhood realized in Him, and the kingdom of God 


110 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


which he founded—an idea and problem not yet rightly 
understood and incorporated into the life, even of those 
who, in other respects, justly rank as the most zealous 
and the warmest Christians! Were Christ in deed and 
in truth our life, how could such a falling away from him 
be possible! Those in whom He lived would witness so 
mightily for him, through their whole life, whether 
spoken, written, or acted, that unbelief would be forced 
to silence.” 
TIMOTHY DWIGHT, D.D. 

Dr. Dwight, President of Yale College, in his much- 
admired System of Theology, thus forcibly and beauti- 
fully shows that man, at his creation, was designed for a 
religious being: 

‘“‘ How illustrious a being was man as he came from 
the hands of his Maker! With what dignified attributes 
was he endued. Jor what high purposes was he qualified. 
To what sublime enjoyments was he destined. In him 
was found, in an important sense, the end of this earthly 
system. Without man, the world, its furniture, and its 
inhabitants, would have existed in vain. Whatever of 
skill, power, and goodness were displayed by the creative 
Hand, there was, before the formation of man, none to 
understand, admire, love, enjoy, or praise the Creator. 
The earth was clothed with beauty ; the landscape un- 
folded its delightful scenes; the sky spread its magnifi- 
cent curtains; the sun traveled in the greatness of his 
strength; the moon and the stars solemnly displayed the 
glorious wisdom of their Author, without an eye to gaze, 
or a heart to contemplate. A magnificent habitation 
was, indeed, built and furnished; but no tenant was 
found. Brutes were the only beings which could enjoy 


Kdueators. 111 


at all, and their enjoyment was limited to animal gratifi- 
cation. 

“But man was separated from all earthly creatures, 
by being formed an intelligent being. His mind could 
trace the skill and glory of the Creator in the works 
of his hands; and, from the nature of the work, could 
understand, admire, and adore the Workman. His 
thoughts could rise to God, and wander through eternity. 
The universe to him was a mirror, by which he saw re- 
flected every moment, in every place, and in every form, 
the beauty, greatness, and excellence of Jehovah. To 
Hin, his affections and his praises rose, more sweet than 
the incense of the morning, and made no unhappy har- 
mony with the loftier music of heaven. He was the 
priest of this great world, and offered the morning and 
evening sacrifice of thanksgiving for the whole earthly 
creation. Of this creation he was also the lord, the 
rightful, just, and benevolent sovereign. The subjection 
of the inferior creatures to him was voluntary, and pro- 
ductive of nothing but order, peace, and happiness. With 
these endowments and privileges, he was placed in 
Paradise; no unworthy resemblance of heaven itself; and 
surrounded by ‘every thing which was good for food, or 
pleasant to the eye.’ In anatmosphere impregnated with 
life; amid streams in which life flowed; amid fruits in 
which life bloomed and ripened; encircled by ever-living 
beauty and magnificence; peaceful within; safe without; 
and conscious of immortality; he was destined to labor 
only that he might be useful and happy, and to contem- 
plate the wonders of the universe, and worship its glori- 
ous Author, as his prime and professional employment. 
He was an image of the invisible God, created to be like 


412 ‘Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


him in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, His illus- 
trious attributes; and, like Him to receive dominion 
ever the works of His hands. 

“In this situation, removed far from death and disease, 
from sorrow and fear, he was formed for endless improve- 
ment. His mind, like that of angels, was capable of con- 
tinual expansion, refinement, and elevation ; and his life 
of perpetual exaltation in worth, usefulness, and honor. 
God was his visitor; angels were his companions.” 


LOUIS GAUSSEN. 


The great Reformation of the sixteenth century spread 
extensively in various parts of Europe, reviving and re- 
establishing primitive Christianity. In the present 
century, however, Rationalism has made its appearance 
to the no small detriment of true spiritual religion. 
But, at the same time, a number of evangelical writers 
have sprung up, and have been laboring earnestly for the 
faith once delivered to the saints. Among these 1s 
Gaussen, a Professor of Theology in the College at 
Geneva. His work on Theopneusty, or the Plenary In- 
spiration of the Holy Scriptures, is a work of great 
research and convincing argument, and has done much 
to establish the true doctrine of Inspiration. In this 
admirable work, he thus speaks of the excellence of the 
Sacred Volume: f 

“The word of God siete itself without a saranlel’ 
has unequaled attractions; it offers to the men of every 
age, place, and condition, beauties always new, a charm 
which does not grow old, which ever satisfies and never 
satiates. In .direct contrast with human books, it not 
only pleases you, but it inoreases in beauty, extent and 


Hdueators. 113 


elevation of meaning, in proportion as you read it more as- 
siduously. It seems that the book, the more you study 
and re-study it, grows and expands, and that an invisible 
and benevolent Being comes daily to add some new charm 
toit. This is the reason why the souls of the learned and 
the unlearned, who have long been nourished by it, 
equally hang upon it, just as the multitudes once did on 
the lips of Christ. They all find it incomparable. 

“Domestic scenes, avowals of the conscience, secret 
effusions of prayer, travels, proverbs, revelations of the 
depths of the heart, the holy career of a child of God, 
weaknesses unveiled, falls, revivings, intimate experi- 
ences, parables, familiar letters, theological treatises, 
sacred commentaries on some ancient Scripture, national 
chronicles, military pageants, political censuses, descrip- 
tions of God, portraits of angels, celestial visions, 
practical counsels, rules of life, solutions of cases of 
conscience, judgments of the Lord, sacred songs, pre- 
dictions of the future, accounts of the days which pre- 
ceded our creation, sublime odes, inimitable poetry; all 
this is found in turn; and all this is there exposed to our 
view in a variety full of charm, and in a whole whose 
majesty is captivating as that of a temple. 

‘“¢¢ Can a book at once so sublime and so simple, be the 
work of man?’ inquired a too celebrated philosopher of 
the last century; and every page has answered,—No, 
impossible; for every-where, through so many ages, and 
whichever of the sacred writers holds the pen, king or 
shepherd, scribe or fisherman, priest or publican, every- 
where you recognize that the same author, the same 
eternal Spirit has conceived and dictated every thing; 

10 


114 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


every-where, in Babylon as at Horeb, in Jerusalem as in 
Athens, in Rome as in Patmos, you find described the 
same God, the same world, the same men, the same 
angels, the same future, the same heaven.” 


MARK HOPKINS, M.D., D.D., LL.D. 


Dr. Mark Hopkins, President of Williams College, 
Massachusetts, presents, in his Evidences of Christianity, 
the advantages and excellences of the christian religion 
in the following strong light: 

“To me, when I look at this religion, taking its point 
of departure from the earliest period in the history of 
the race; when I see it analagous to nature; when I see 
it comprising all that natural religion teaches, and intro- 
ducing a new system in entire harmony with it, but 
which could not have been deduced from it; when I see 
it commending itself to the conscience of man, contain- 
ing a perfect code of morals, meeting all his moral wants, 
and embosoming the only true principles of economical 
and political science; when I see in it the best possible 
system of excitement and restraint for all the faculties ; 
when I see how simple it is in its principle, and yet in 
how many thousand ways it mingles in with human 
affairs, and modifies them for good, so that it is adapted 
to become universal; when I see it giving an account of 
the termination of all things, worthy of God and con- 
sistent with reason; to me, when I look at all these 
things, it no more seems possible that the system of 
Christianity should have been originated or sustained by 
man, than it does that the ocean should have been made 


by him.” 


Educators. 115 


JEAN LE CLERC. 


Le Clerc, an eminent critic and professor of philosophy, 
belles-lettres, and Hebrew, in his younger days was of 
the opinion that the books of Moses were written some 
ages after his time, but after more extensive reading and 
research, changed his mind, and wrote in defense of 
their genuineness and authenticity. He was the author 
of numerous works on different subjects, in one of which 
he says: “The first, and truly original historians, are 
those of the Hebrew Scriptures. The sacred writers, to 
the unequaled dignity of their subject, unite a majestic 
simplicity, and even perspicuity of style and narration. 
Moses, the most ancient, is the most perfect of historians. 
His style is copious, even, and clear. Like a deep river, 
he bears his reader with a calm and majestic course. It 
was his purpose to give a body of laws, as well as a 
thread of history; and by interweaving them together 
he has authenticated both; for it is impossible to forge 
the civil and religious policy of a great nation.” 

Le Clere also states that while he was compiling his 
Harmony, he was so struck with admiration of the excel- 
lent discourses of Jesus, so inflamed with the love of his 
most holy doctrine, that he thought he but just then 
began to be acquainted with what he scarce ever laid out 
of his hands from his infancy. 


DR. LEECHMAN. 


Dr. Leechman, principal of the college of Glasgow, at 
the close of his life, while addressing the son of a worthy 
nobleman, whose eazly education he had superintended, 
said: “You see the situation I am in: I have not many 
days to live: I am glad you have the opportunity of wit- 


116 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


nessing the tranquillity of my last moments. But it is 
not tranquillity and composure alone: it is joy and 
triumph: it is complete exultation. And whence,” said 
he, “ does this exultation spring?” Pointing to a Bible 
that lay on the table, he added, with a voice of increased 
energy, while joy kindled in his eye, “ From that book, 
much neglected indeed, but which contains invaluable 
treasures! treasures of joy and rejoicing! for it makes 
us certain that this mortal shall put on immortality.” 


JAMES MC COSH, D.D., LL.D. 


Dr. McCosh, who came by invitation from Scotland 
to take charge of Princeton College, is author of several 
valuable works on science and religion. In his work en- 
titled Christianity and Positivism, speaking of the doc- 
trine of One Force, he remarks: “It furnishes a more 
striking manifestation than any thing known before of 
the One God, with his infinitely varied perfections—of 
his power, his knowledge, his wisdom, his love, his mercy: 
it bids us see that One Power blowing in the breeze, 
sparkling in the stars, quickening us as we bound along 
in the felt enjoyment of health, efflorescing in every form 
and line of beauty, and showering down daily gifts 
upon us.” 

In the following sentences, Dr. McCosh enumerates 
some of the gaps over which mere force, without Divine 
agency, can not go: 

“1. Chemical action can not be produced by mechani- 
cal power. 

“2. Life, even in the lowest forms, can not be pro- 
duced from unorganized matter. 


Educators. pay: 


“3, Protoplasm can be produced only by living 
matter. 

“4, Organized matter is made up of cells, and can be 
produced only by cells. Whence the first cell* 

“5, A living being can be produced only from a seed 
or germ. Whence the first vegetable seed 

“6. An animal can not be produced from a plant. 
Whence the first animal ? 

“7, Sensation can not be produced in insentient 
matter. 

“8. The genesis of a new species of plant or animal 
has never come under the cognizance of man, either in 
pre-human or post-human ages, either in pre- -scientific or 
scientific times. Darwin acknowledges this, and says 
that, should a new species suddenly arise, we have no 
means of knowing that it is such. 

“9. Consciousness—that is, a knowledge of self and its 
operations—can not be produced out of mere matter or 
sensation. 

“10. We have no knowledge of man being generated 
out of the lower animals. 

“11, All human beings, even savages, are capable of 
forming certain high ideas, such as those of God and 
duty. The brute creatures can not be made to entertain 
these by any training. | 

“With such tremendous gaps in the process, the theory 
which would derive all things out of sada by develop- 
ment is seen to be a very precarious one.’ 

In his work on the Method of the Divine Government, 
speaking of the folly of certain philosophers, Dr. 
McCosh observes : 


118 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


‘There are certain philosophers who are ever talking 
of the laws of nature, as if they could accomplish all that 
we see in the earth and heavens, without the necessity 
of calling in any Divine skill to arrange them. We have 
sometimes thought that it might be an appropriate pun- 
ishment to deal with such persons as Jupiter did with 
those who complained to him of the way in which he 
regulated the weather. We would give the philosophers 
referred to a world of their own, with all the substances 
of nature, and their properties labeled upon them, and 
arranged according to human science, much like the 
articles in a museum, or an apothecary’s shop. We 
would place the Mineralogist over the metals, and 
the Anatomist over the animals, and the Botanist 
over the vegetable substances: we would give the 
Meteorologist charge of the atmosphere and rain, and 
we would furnish the Astronomer with those nebula, 
out of which it is supposed that the stars are formed as 
webs are formed out of fleeces of wool. Having called 
these philosophers together in cabinet council, we would 
there commit to them these principia of worlds. Taking 
care to retire to a respectful distance for safety, it might 
be curious to listen to their disputes with one another; 
and then, when they had arranged their plans of opera- 
tion, to find the Chemist blown up by his own gases, and 
the Mineralogist sinking in the excavations which he had 
made, and the Anatomist groaning under disease, and 
the Botanist pining for hunger, and the Weather Regu- 
lator deluged with his own rain, and the Astronomer 
driven ten thousand leagues into space by the recalcitra- 
tion of some refractory planet. We may be sure that 
these philosophers would be the first to beg of Him who 


Educators. 119 


is the Disposer as well as the Creator of all things, to 
resume the government of his own world.” 

Dr. McCosh, in his Method of the Divine Govern- 
ment, makes some excellent remarks on the intimate 
connection between science and religion. He remarks: 

“We have often mourned over the attempts made to 
set the works of God against the word of God, and 
thereby excite, propagate, and perpetuate jealousies fit- 
ted to separate parties that ought to live in closest union. 
In particular, we have always regretted that endeavors 
should have been made to depreciate nature with a view 
of exalting revelation: it has always appeared to us 
to be nothing else than the degrading of one part of 
God’s works, in the hope thereby of exalting and recom- 
mending another.” “Perilous as it is at all times for 
the friends of religion to set themselves against natural 
science, it is especially dangerous in an age like the 
present.” 

“Tt is no profane work that is engaged in by those 
who, in all humility, would endeavor to remove jealousy 
between parties whom God has joined together, and 
whom man is not at liberty to put asunder. We are not 
lowering the dignity of science when we command it to 
do what all the objects which it looks at and admires 
do—when we command it to worship God. Nor are we 
detracting from the honor which is due to religion when 
‘we press it to take science into its service, and accept 
the homage which it is able to pay. We are seeking to 
exalt both when we show how nature conducts man to 
the threshold of religion, and when from this point we 
bid him look abroad on the wide territories of nature. 
We would aid, at the same time, both religion and 


120 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


science, by removing those prejudices against sacred 
truth which nature has been employed to foster; and we 
would accomplish this, not by casting aside and discard- 
Ing nature, but by rightly interpreting it. 

‘“‘ Let not science and religion be reckoned as opposing 
citadels, frowning defiance upon each other, and their 
troops brandishing their armor in hostile attitude. They 
have too many common foes, if they would but think of 
it, in ignorance and prejudice, in passion and vice, under 
all their forms, to admit of their lawfully wasting their 
strength in a useless warfare with each other. Science 
has a foundation, and so has religion: let them unite 
their foundations, and the basis will be broader, and they 
will be two compartments of one great fabric reared to 
the glory of God. Let the one be the outer and the 
other the inner court. In the one let all look, and admire, 
and adore; and in the other, let those who have faith 
kneel, and pray, and praise. Let the one be the sanc- 
tuary where human learning may present its richest 
incense as an offering to God, and the other the holiest 
of all, separated from it by a vail now rent in twain, and 
in which, on blood-besprinkled mercy-seat, we pour out 
the love of a reconciled heart, and hear the oracles of the 
living God.” 

HORACE MANN, LL.D. 

One of the most earnest educators in the United States 
was Horace Mann. After graduating in college, he 
studied law, but devoted his whole energies to improving 
the system of education. He afterward became a mem- 
ber of Congress, and finally President of Antioch Col- 
lege, Ohio. The following extracts are from one of hig 
educational addresses : 


Educators. 124) 


“T hold it to be one of the laws of God that the tal- 
ents of man can be developed in the best way and can 
produce the most beneficial results only when they act 
in full consonance with all the precepts and principles 
of religion. The pursuit of knowledge or science is the 
pursuit of truth. All truth comes from God. No knowl- 
edge or science, therefore, can be vitalized by the true 
life, breathed upen by the true spirit, or come into the 
human consciousness irradiated with the same empyrean 
glory with which it emanated from God, unless it is ac- 
quired and embraced by a virtuous and a religiously 
affected soul. We should grasp knowledge, not with one 
only, but with all our faculties.” 

“To the merely scientific mind, there are several dif- 
ferent kinds of rays or influences emitted or produced 
by the sun. It illuminates, it warms, and it effects new 
chemical arrangements among atoms. Now the optician 
analyzes its light; the galvanist measures its heat, and the 
chemist notes the atomic changes wrought by its chemi- 
cal power. But to the religious-minded man, whenever 
he beholds that glorious orb through the prism of our 
heavenly Father’s care and love, he sees something above 
and beyond what optician, galvanist or chemist can see. 
Its beams are irradiated and hallowed by a diviner efful- 
gence than that which reaches the natural eye; they pene- 
trate his heart with a warmth more vital and gladdening 
than any the nerves can feel, and they so purify and re- 
combine the elements of thought and affection as to dis- 
til the elixir of a celestial joy through all his soul and 
over all his days. The philosopher looks at the scientific 
properties of matter, and admires ; the Christian beholds 

11 


122 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


not only the gift, but the Giver, and adores. The one 
has only the knowledge of truth; the other the rapture 
of devotion. They have two horizons, one of which em- 
braces the wonders of nature; but the other embraces not 
only all nature’s wonders, but their wonderful Author also.” 

‘“‘ How much vaster and more glorious do the heavens 
appear when seen by the eye of science, than when seen 
by the eye of sense. So much beyond all scientific glory 
will they appear when seen by the eye of religion.” 

“The greatest demand of the age is, that religion and 
science should be reconciled, and should become co-work- 
ers for the blessing of man and the glory of God. The 
religious man must'go with the scientific man to study 
God in his works. The scientific man must go with the 
religious man to worship God in his temples. Both must 
be men of secular knowledge. Both must be men of 
divine knowledge. The minister at God’s altar must be 
able to look up and read the stars through the telescope 
of the astronomer; and the astronomer, through the 
precepts of the Christian religion and the example of 
Jesus Christ, must be able to look up, not to the stars 
only, but to God and to the immortality of men. The 
academy and the church must be but different apart- 
ments canopied by the same dome—the all-comprehend- 
ing dome of Divine Providence!” 


CHARLES NORDHOFF. 

In an excellent work, entitled Politics for Young 
Americans, written by Charles Nordhoff, the influence of 
Christian principles on popular government is acknowl- 
edged in terms the most positive and just. The author 
says: 


Educators. 12S 


‘‘T believe that free government is a political appli- 
cation of the Christian theory of life; that at the base 
of the republican system lies the Golden Rule; and that 
to be a good citizen of the United States one ought to be 
imbued with the spirit of Christianity, and to believe in 
and act upon the teachings of Jesus. He condemned 
self-seeking covetousness, hypocrisy, class distinctions, 
envy malice, undue and ignoble ambition; and he in- 
culcated self-restraint, repression of the lower and 
meaner passions, love to the neighbor, contentment, 
gentleness, regard for the rights and happiness of others, 
and respect for the law. It seems to me that the vices 
he condemned are those also which are dangerous to the 
perpetuity of republican government; and that the 
principles he inculcated may be properly used as tests 
of the merits of a political system, or a public policy.” 


ELIPHALET NOTT, D.D., LL.D. 


Dr. Nott, for sixty years President of Union College, 
Schenectady, New York, held the Bible in such high 
estimation, that he wished it introduced into every insti- 
tution of learning in Christendom. He gives his opinion 
of its merits in the following strong terms: 

“Tf my opinion will be of any use, I give it most 
cheerfully in favor of making the Bible a text-book in 
the school, the academy, the college, and the university. 
To say nothing of its literature, which, in my judgment, 
is unrivaled, it contains not only the purest system of 
morals, but the soundest maxims of political economy, 
and the most exact delineations of human nature, to be 
found on earth. There is more in it to make a man 
great as well as good, than there is in any other volume. 


124 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


Men can not be well educated without the Bible. It 
ought, therefore, to hold the chief place in every insti- 
tution of learning throughout Christendom; and I do 
not know of a higher service that could be rendered to 
this republic, than the bringing about this desirable re- 


sult.” 
JOSIAH QUINCY, ai ed OY 


Dr. Josiah Quincy, a distinguished lawyer, statesman, 
orator, and man of letters, and President of Harvard 
University, expresses in a few words, some of the most 
momentous truths ever uttered. 

“The great comprehensive truths written in letters of 
living light on every page of history, are these: Human 
happiness has no perfect security but freedom ; freedom, 
none but virtue ; virtue, none but knowledge; and neither 
freedom, nor virtue, has any vigor or immortal hope, 
except in the principles of the Christian faith, and in 
the sanctions of the Christian religion.” 


HENRY ROGERS. 


One of the popular books on religious controversy, 
published in the present century, is entitled The Eclipse 
of Faith, or a Visit to a Religious Skeptic, and was writ- 
ten by Henry Rogers, a professor in the Independent 
College, Birmingham, England. It is full of vigorous 
thought and sound logic; and sometimes the author 
pours forth strains of genuine eloquence. The following, 
on the Humanity of Christ, is replete with beauty, force, 
and true religious feeling: 

“The brightness of the brightest names pales and 
wanes before the radiance which shines from the person 
of Christ. The scenes at the tomb of Lazarus, at the 


Educators. Lee 


gate of Nain, in the happy family at Bethany, in the 
‘upper room’ where he instituted the feast which should 
forever consecrate his memory, and bequeathed to his 
disciples the legacy of his love: the scenes in the Gar- 
den of Gethsemane, on the summit of Calvary, and at 
the sepulcher: the sweet remembrance of the patience 
with which he bore wrong, the gentleness with which he 
rebuked it, and the love with which he forgave it: the 
thousand acts of benign condescension by which he well 
earned for himself, from self-righteous pride and censor- 
ious hypocrisy, the name of the ‘ friend of publicans and 
sinners:’ these and a hundred things more, which crowd 
those concise memorials of love and sorrow with such 
prodigality of beauty and of pathos, will still continue to 
charm and attract the soul of humanity, and on these the 
highest genius, as well as the humblest mediocrity, will 
love to dwell. ‘These things lisping infancy loves to 
hear on its mother’s knees, and over them age, with its 
gray locks, bends in devoutest reverence. No;_ before 
the infidel can prevent the influence of these composi- 
tions, he must get rid of the gospels themselves, or he 
must supplant them by fictions yet more wonderful ! 
But if the last be impossible, at least the gospels must 
cease to exist before infidelity can succeed. Yes, before 
infidels can prevent men from thinking as they have ever 
done of Christ, they must blot out the record of those 
miracles which charm us, not only as the proof of his 
mission, and guarantees of the truth of his doctrine, but 
as they illustrate the benevolence of his character, and 
are types of the spiritual cures his gospel can yet per- 
form: they must blot out the scenes of the sepulcher, 
where love and veneration lingered, and saw what was 


126 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


never seen before, but shall henceforth be seen to the 
end of time—the tomb itself irradiated with angelic 
forms, and bright with the presence of him ‘who brought 
life and immortality to light:’ they must blot out the 
discourses in which he took leave of his disciples, the 
majestic accents of which have filled so many departing 
souls with patience and with triumph: they must blot 
out the yet sublimer words in which he declares himself 
‘the resurrection and the life’-—words which have led so 
many millions more to breathe out their spirits with 
child-like trust, and to believe, as the gate of death 
closed behind them, that they would see him who is 
invested with the ‘keys of the invisible world.’ 

“At his feet guilty humanity, of diverse races and 
nations, for eighteen hundred years, has come to pour 
forth, in faith and love, its sorrows, and finds there ‘ the 
peace which the world can neither give nor take away.’ 
Myriads of aching heads and weary hearts have found, 
and will find, repose there, and have invested him with 
veneration, love, and gratitude, which will never, never 
be paid to any other name than his.” 


JULIUS H. SEELYE, S.T.D., LL.D. 


Professor Seelye, President of Amherst College, speak- 
ing of the necessity of the religious sentiment, very 
justly remarks : | | 

“A nation’s intellectual progress has always followed— 
not preceded—some moral impulse. The history of the 
fine arts shows that some form of religion gave them 
their earliest impulse. There has never been a great 
genius but has been inspired in some sense by religion. 
The thoughts of the intellect are lofty in proportion as 


Educators. Bp 


the sentiments of the heart are profound. If we begin 
the attempt to improve men with the intellect, we end 
where we began. Education will not remove corruption. 
It may guide vice, as in ancient Rome and Athens, but 
will not uproot it. A godless education has no power to 
purify. Instruction in morality has also failed to regen- 
erate. No man does his duty simply because he knows 
it, unless he loves it; nor are political and social changes 
effective. Social evil has its root in the individual heart, 
and can not be removed except by influences operating 
within it. This fountain of man’s corruption must be 
purified to correct social vice.” 

Professor Seelye, in an Address to College Students, 
says: ‘‘ Godliness is manliness. Whatever will weaken 
your faith in God will weaken you. Whatever will 
deepen your sense of your divine relationship will 
heighten the sense which other men will entertain of 
your crown and royalty. Never let any man have cause 
to despise you for disregarding the image in which you 
were made, and the sovereignty to which you are respon- 
sible, and the price paid for your redemption. This 
thought should also keep you from ever thinking meanly 
of your fellow-men. All your views about your relation- 
ship to your fellow-men will be tinged, and in the last 
resort directed by the sense you have of your relation- 
ship to God. The view that man has no God—no 
Creator, or, if a Creator, that he has no divine Father, 
and Redeemer, and Lord, will modify your entire lookout 
upon society, and lead you to altogether different social 
theories from the view which brings all men under the 
personal superintendence and loving care of a creating 
and redeeming God. If you see all men as God sees 


128 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


them, you will not be satisfied to treat them in any other 
way than as God treats them.” 


DAVID SWING. 
Professor Swing, a prominent preacher and lecturer, 


speaking of the supreme importance of religious truth, 
remarks: ‘A Bible well worn in that part which con- 
tains the Sermon on the Mount is the book which our 
age most needs. There the will of the Father, those 
laws which save souls or destroy them, lie in perfect 
plainness. No commentary can throw light upon them ; 
no science or learning can take their light away. They 
are a part of the universe, only more imperishable than 
the stars. Christ died for man, because man would not 
respect these laws of the kingdom. Having died for 
sinners, He now invites them to come into these laws of 
the Father. Do not mistake the invitation.” 


EDWARD THOMSON, D.D., LL.D. 


Bishop Thomson, at one time President of the Ohio 
Wesleyan University, was a ripe scholar and a fine 
writer. His essays are a rich mine of wisdom; the one 
on Close Thought has nothing superior to it in the En- 
glish language. For religion he had the profoundest — 
reverence. He thus speaks of the durability and wide- 
spreading influence of the Divine Word: | 

“Tt has a self-perpetuating and multiplying power. 
Infidels have written books: where are they? Where is 
Porphyry? Julian? Fragments of them there are; but 
we are indebted even for these to Christian criticism. 
Where is Hume? Voltaire? Bolingbroke? It requires 
the world’s reprieve to bring a copy out of the prison of 


Educators. 129 


their darkness. Where is the Bible? Wherever there 
is light. Speaking the language of heaven in sevenscore 
and three of the tongues of earth, and giving the Word 
of God by forty millions of voices to five times as many 
million ears, and in tongues spoken by six hundred mill- 
ions of men, and having swept its path of storm through 
all time, it still walks triumphant, despite earth’s dying 
malice and hell’s eternal wrath; and like the apocalyptic 
angel, though it wraps its mantle of cloud around it, 
calmly looks out upon the world with a face as it were 


the sun encircled with the rainbow !”’ 


E. V. TOLLARS. 


Rev. E. V. Tollars, in accepting the presidency of 
Hiram College, uttered the following golden sentiment : 
“The indications are that the time is well nigh past for 
Christian colleges to send out graduates who know vastly 
more about the gods of Olympus than about the God of 
the Bible; who are better instructed in the teachings of 
the Greek philosophers than in the teachings of Christ 
and his apostles; who are better informed upon the his- 
tory, laws, and literature of pagan Greece and Rome, 
than upon the history, laws, and literature of God’s 
chosen people.” 


FRANCIS WAYLAND, D.D., LL.D. 

Dr. Wayland, President of Brown University, Rhode 
Island, was not only a practical educator, but also an 
author of excellent works on Mental and Moral Philoso- 
phy and Political Economy, which obtained wide-spread 
popularity. He stood high, too, as a minister of the 


130 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible 


Gospel. ‘The following passage shows his exalted opin- 
ion of the transforming energy of the Bible: 

“That the truths of the Bible have the power of 
awakening an intense moral feeling in man under every 
variety of character, learned or ignorant, civilized or 
savage; that they make bad men good, and send a pulse 
of healthful feeling through all the domestic, civil, and 
social relations; that they teach men to love right, to 
hate wrong, and to seek each other’s welfare, as children 
of one common Parent; that they control the baleful 
passions of the human heart, and thus make men profi- 
cient in the science of self-government; and, finally, that 
they teach him to aspire after a conformity to a Being 
of infinite holiness, and fill him with hopes infinitely 
more purifying, more exalted, more suited to his nature, 
than any other which this world has ever known, are 
facts as incontrovertible as the laws of philosophy, or 
the demonstrations of mathematics.” 


DR. WINSLOW. 

Dr. Winslow, in his Moral Philosophy, speaking of the 
Sacred Volume, says: 

‘Of all the books ever written, this has exerted im- 
measurably the most power over the character and des- 
tinies of mankind. Under its influence, we see men 
reclaimed from vice to lives of virtue and benevolence: 
we see even whole nations redeemed from sottish idola- 
try to the rational and pure worship of the only living 
and true God. The most enlightened, virtuous, enter- 
prizing, and efficient people in the world, are precisely 
those most under the influence of this wonderful book.” 
“ Receiving the Bible as from God, we ought to hold it 


Edueators. Le: 


in great reverence. To trifle with it: to quote from it 
with a view to pleasantry and jest; to question its ve- 
racity, or impugn its authority; in short, to treat it as 
we would a book of mere human origin, is immoral and 
profane.” “ A book claiming to contain a revelation from 
God, and attended with so many wonderful demonstra- 
tions of its divine origin and power, can not be inno- 
cently disregarded.” ‘If any one, upon due examina- 
tion, professes to believe the bovk false, we must leave 
the strange person to his own thoughts.” ‘‘ Better to be 
without all other books in the world, than to be without 
the Bible: better to neglect all other books, than to 
neglect this.” 


JOHN WITHERSPOON, D.D., LL.D. 


Dr. Witherspoon, one of the patriots of the Revolu- 
tion and signers of the Declaration of Independence, 
was a Presbyterian clergyman and President of Prince- 
ton College. In one of his sermons he thus speaks of 
the supreme importance of piety in connection with 
civil liberty : 

“He is the best friend to American liberty who is the 
most sincere and active in promoting true and undefiled 
religion, and who sets himself with the greatest firmness 
to bear down profanity and immorality of every kind. 
Whoever is an avowed enemy to God, I scruple not to 
call him an enemy to his country. It is your duty in 
this important and critical season to exert yourselves, 
every one in his proper sphere, to stem the tide of pre- 
vailing vice, to promote the knowledge of God, the rev- 
erence of his name and worship and obedience to his 
laws. Your duty to God, to your country, to your fami- 


132 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


lies, and to yourselves, is the same. True religion is 
nothing else but an inward temper and outward conduct 
suited to your state and circumstances in Providence at 
any time. And as peace with God and conformity to 
him add to the sweetness of created comforts while we 
possess them, so in times of difficulty and trial it is the 
man of piety and inward principle that we may expect 
to find the uncorrupted patriot, the useful citizen, and 
the invincible soldier. God grant that in America true 
‘religion and civil liberty may be inseparable, and that 
the unjust attempts to destroy the one may in the issue 
tend to the support and establishment of both.” 


a 


GEOLOGISTS. 


WILLIAM BUCKLAND, M.D. 


One of England’s most able and thorough geologists was 
Dr. Buckland, Professor of Geology in Oxford Univer- 
sity. His labors in practical geology were extensive, 
and his writings on the science are the production of a 
master mind. In those writings, he demonstates most 
clearly the agency of a divine Being both in creating and 
sustaining universal nature, and also expresses his full 
coufidence in the truth of the Sacred Scriptures. In his 
Bridgewater Treatise, he remarks : | 

‘The earth, from her deep foundations, unites with the 
celestial orbs that roll throughout boundless space, to 
declare the glory and show forth the praise of their com- 
mon Author and Preserver; and the voice of natural 
religion accords harmoniously with the testimonies of 
revelation, in ascribing the origin of the universe to the 


Geologists. 133 


will of one eternal and dominant Intelligence, the al- 
mighty Lord and supreme First Cause of all things that 
subsist; the same yesterday, to-day, and forever, before 
the mountains were brought forth, or ever the earth and 
the world were made, God from everlasting and with- 
out end.” 

In the same Treatise, speaking of the fossil remains— 
both plants and animals, and the unity of the divine in- 
telligence manifested in their character, Dr. Buckland 
observes : 

“‘ Facts like these are inestimably precious to the natural 
theologian, for they identify, as it were, the Artificer, by 
details of manipulation throughout his works. They 
appeal to the physiologist, in language more command- 
ing than human eloquence; the voice of very stocks and 
stones, that have been buried for countless ages in the 
deep recesses of the earth, proclaiming the universal 
agency of one all-directing, all-sustaining Creator, in 
whose will and power these harmonious systems origin- 
ated, and by whose universal providence they are, and 
have at all times been, maintained.” 

The same great truth, the unity of the divine intelli- 
gence manifested in the character of the fossil remains, 
Dr. Buckland presents in the same work still more fully, 
remarking that: 

“In all the numerous examples of design which we 
have selected from the various animal and vegetable 
remains that occur in a fossil state, there is such a 
never-failing identity in the fundamental principles of 
their construction, and such uniform adoption of analo- 
gous means to produce various ends, with so much only 
of departure from one common type of mechanism as was 


154 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


requisite to adapt each instrument to its own special 
function, and to fit each species to its peculiar place and 
office in the scale of created beings, that we can scarcely 
fail to acknowledge in all these facts a demonstration of 
the unity of the intelligence in which such transcendent 
harmony originated; and we may almost dare to assert 
that neither atheism nor polytheism would ever have 
found acceptance in the world, had the evidences of high 
intelligence and unity of design which have been dis- 
closed by modern discoveries in physical science been 
fully known to the authors or the abettors of systems to 
which they are so diametrically opposed. It is the same 
handwriting that we read, the same system and con- 
trivance that we trace, the same unity of object and 
relation to final causes which we see maintained through- 
out, and constantly proclaiming the unity of the great 
divine Original.” 

Dr. Buckland thus forcibly expresses his belief in the 
religious tendency of the science of geology, and the 
duty of Christians to receive its sublime revelations: 

“Shall it any longer be said that a science, which 
unfolds such abundant evidence of the being and attri- 
butes of God, can reasonably be viewed in any other light 
than as the efficient auxiliary and handmaid of religion? 
Some few there still may be, whom timidity or prejudice, 
or want of opportunity, allow not to examine its evi- 
dence; who are alarmed by the novelty, or surprised by 
the extent and magnitude of the views which geology 
forces on their attention, and who would rather have 
kept closed the volume of witnesses, which has been sealed 
up for ages, beneath the surface of the earth, than impose 
upon the student in natural theology the duty of studying 


Geologists. 135 


its contents; a duty in which, for lack of experience, 
they may anticipate a hazardous or a laborious task, but 
which, by those engaged in it, is found to afford a 
rational, righteous, and delightful exercise of their high- 
est faculties, in multiplying the evidences of the exist- 
ence, attributes and providence of God.” 

In referring to the consistency of the records of geol- 
ogy and the records of ee Dr. Buckland very 
properly remarks: 

“Tt would seem just matter of surprise, that many 
learned and religious men should regard with jealousy 
and suspicion the study of any natural phenomena, 
which abound with proofs of some of the highest attri- 
butes of the Deity; and should receive with distrust, or 
total incredulity, the announcement of conclusions, which 
the geologist deduces from careful and patient investiga- 
tions of the facts which it is his province to explore. 
These doubts and difficulties result from the disclosures 
made by geology, respecting the lapse of very long 
periods of time before the creation of man. Minds which 
have long been accustomed to date the origin of the 
universe, as well as that of the human race, from an era 
of about six thousand years ago, receive reluctantly any 
information, which, if true, demands some new modifica- 
tion of their present ideas of cosmogony; and as, in this 
respect, geology has shared the fate of other infant 
sciences, in being for a while considered hostile to 
revealed religion; so like them, when fully understood, 
it will be found a potent, and consistent auxiliary to it, 
exalting our conviction of the power, and wisdom, and 
goodness of the Creator.” 


136 estimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


On the same subject, the consistency of the records 
of geology and the records of inspiration, Dr. Buckland 
further remarks: 

‘No reasonable man can doubt that all the phenomena 
of the natural world derive their origin from God; and 
no one who believes the Bible to be the word of God, 
has cause to fear any discrepancy between this, his word, 
and the results of any discoveries respecting the nature 
of his works; but the early and deliberate stages of 
scientific discovery are always of perplexity and alarm, 
and during these stages, the human mind is naturally 
circumspect, and slow to admit new conclusions in any 
department of knowledge. The prejudiced persecutors 
of Galileo apprehended danger to religion from the dis- 
coveries of a science, in which a Kepler and a Newton 
found demonstrations of the most sublime and glorious 
attributes of the Creator.” 

Notwithstanding the doubts and fears of a number of 
Christian writers, Dr. Buckland thought that the dawn 
of a better day had come, and observes: 

“‘ The alarm, however, which was excited by the novelty 
of its first discoveries, has well nigh passed away; and 
those to whom it has been permitted to be the humble 
instruments of their promulgation, and who have steadily 
persevered, under the firm conviction that ‘truth can 
never be opposed to truth,’ and that the works of God, 
when rightly understood, and viewed in their true rela- 
tions, and from a right position, would at length be 
found to be in perfect accordance with his word, are now 
receiving their high reward in finding difficulties vanish, 
objections gradually withdrawn, and in seeing the evi- 


Geologists. 137 


dences of geology admitted into the list of witnesses to 
the truth of the great fundamental doctrines of theology.” 


JAMES D. DANA, LL.D. 


The most able and thorough American writer on Ge- 
ology, is James D. Dana, Professor of Geology and 
Natural History in Yale College, and author of several 
works on Geology and Mineralogy, which have acquired 
great popularity in the scientific world. The conclud- 
ing remarks in his Text-Book of Geology, in regard 
to the gradual preparation of the earth as a suitable 
abode for man, are so replete with sound reasoning, 
that no one can fail to read them with pleasure. They 

_are as follows: 

“Geology may seem to be audacious in its attempts to 
unveil the mysteries of creation. Yet what it reveals 
are only some of the methods by which the Creator has 
performed his will; and many deeper mysteries it leaves 
untouched. 

“Tt brings to view a perfect and harmonious system 
of life, but affords no explanation of the origin of life, 
or of its species, or of any of nature’s forces. 

‘¢Tt accounts for the forms of continents; but it tells 
nothing as to the source of that arrangement of the wide 
and narrow continents and wide and narrow oceans that 
was necessary to the grand result. 

“Tt teaches that strata were made in many successions 
as the continents lay balancing near the water’s level, 
sometimes just above the surface, sometimes a little 
below; but it does not explain how it happened that the 
amount of water was of exactly the right quantity to fill 

12 


138 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


the great basin, and admit of oscillations of the land 
beneath or above its surface by only small changes of 
level; for if the water had been a few hundred feet below 
the level it now has, the continents would have remained 
mostly without their marine strata, and the plan of prog- 
ress would have proved a failure; or, if as much above 
its present level, the land through the earlier ages would 
have been sunk to depths comparatively lifeless, with 
no less fatal results both to the series of rocks and the 
system of marine and terrestrial life; and in the end 
there would have been broad and narrow strips of dry 
land and archipelagoes, in place of the expanded Orient 
and Occident. 

‘Tt may be said to have searched out the mode of de- 
velopment ofa world. Yetit can point to no physical 
cause of that prophecy of Man which runs through the 
whole history; which was uttered by the winds and 
waves at their work over the sands, by the rocks in each 
movement of the earth’s crust, and by every living thing 
in the long succession, until Man appeared to make the 
mysterious announcements intelligible. For the body 
of Man was not made more completely for the service of 
the soul, than the earth, in all its arrangements from be- 
ginning to end, for the spiritual being that was to occupy 
it. In Man, the bones are not merely the jointed frame- 
work of an animal, but a framework shaped throughout 
with reference to that erect structure which befits and 
can best serve Man’s spiritual nature. The feet are not 
the clasping and climbing feet of a monkey; they are so 
made as to give firmness to the tread and dignity to the 
bearing of the being made in God’s image. The hands 
have that fashioning of the palm, fingers and thumbs, 


Geologists. 139 


and that delicacy of the sense of touch, which adapt them 
not only to feed the mouth, but to contribute to the wants 
of the soul and obey its promptings. ‘The arms are not 
for strength alone,—for they are weaker than in many a 
brute,—but to give the greater power and expression to 
the thoughts that issue from within. The face, with its 
expressive features, is formed so as to respond not solely 
to the emotions of pleasure and pain, but to shades of 
sentiment and interacting sympathies the most varied, 
high as heaven and low as earth,—aye, lower in debased 
human nature. And the whole being, body, limbs, and 
head, with eyes looking not toward the earth, but be- 
yond an infinite horizon, is a majestic expression of the 
divine feature in Man, and of the infinitude of his 
aspirations. 

‘So with the earth, Man’s world-body. Its rocks 
were so arranged in their formation, that they should 
best serve Man’s purposes. The strata were subjected 
to metamorphism, and so crystallized, that he might be 
provided with the most perfect material for his art,—his 
statues, temples, and dwellings: at the same time, they 
were filled with veins, in order to supply him with gold, 
and silver, and other treasures. The rocks were also so 
made to inclose abundant beds of coal and iron ore, that 
Man might have fuel for his hearths and iron for his 
utensils and machinery. Mountains were raised to tem- 
per hot climates, to diversify the earth’s productiveness, 
and, pre-eminently, to gather the clouds into river-chan- 
nels, thence to moisten the fields for agriculture, afford 
facilities for travel, and supply the world with springs 
and fountains. 

“‘The continents were clustered mostly in one hemi- 


140 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


sphere to bring the nations into closer union; and the two 
having climates and resources the best for human prog- 
ress—the northern Orient and Occident—were separated 
by a narrow ocean, that the great mountains might be 
on the remoter borders of each, and all the declivities, 
plains, and rivers be turned toward one common channel 
of intercourse. So, also, the species of life, both of 
plants and animals, were appointed to administer to 
Man’s necessities, moral as well as physical. 

‘‘ Besides these beneficent provisions, the forces and 
laws of nature were particularly adapted to Man, and 
Man to those laws, so that he should be able to take the 
oceans, rivers, and winds into his service, and even the 
more subtle agencies, heat, light, and electricity; and 
the adjustments were made with such precision that the 
face of the earth is actually fitted hardly less than his 
own to respond to his inner being—the mountains to his 
sense of the sublime, the landscape, with its slopes, its 
trees, its flowers, to his love of the beautiful, and the 
thousands of living species, in their diversity, to his 
various emotions and sentiments. The whole world, 
indeed, seems to have been made almost a material mani- 
festation, in multitudinous forms, of the elements of his 
own Spiritual nature, that it might thereby give wings to 
the soul in its heavenward aspirings. It may therefore 
be said with truth that Man’s spirit was considered in 
the ordering of the earth’s structure as well as in that 
of his own body. 

‘“‘Tt is hence obvious that the earth’s history, which it 
is the object of Geology to teach, is the true introduc- 
tion to human history. 

‘“‘Tt is also certain that science, whatever it may ac- 


Geologists. 141 


complish in the discovery of causes or methods of 
progress, can take no steps toward setting aside a 
Creator. Far from such a result, it clearly proves that 
there has been not only an omnipotent hand to create, 
and to sustain physical forces in action, but an all-wise 
and beneficent Spirit to shape all events towards a 
spiritual end. 

‘Man may well feel exalted to find that he was the 
final purpose when the word went forth in the beginning, 
Let light be. And he may hence derive direct personal 
assurance that all this magnificent preparation is yet to 
have a higher fulfillment in a future of spiritual life. 
This assurance from nature may seem feeble. Yet it is 
at least sufficient to strengthen faith in that Book of 
books in which the promise of that life and ‘the way’ 
are plainly set forth.” 

In his Geological Story, briefly Told, when speaking 
of the origin of man, Professor Dana remarks: 

“The interval between the monkey and man is one of 
the greatest. The capacity of the brain in the lowest of 
men is sixty-eight cubic inches, while that in the highest 
man-ape is but thirty-four. Man is erect in posture, and 
has this erectness marked in the form and position of all 
his bones, while the man-ape has his inclined posture 
forced on him by every bone of his skeleton. The high- 
est of man-apes, the Orang-outang, can not walk without 
holding on by his fore-limbs; and, instead of having a 
double curvature in his back like man, which well-balanced 
erectness requires, he has but one. The connecting 
links between man and any man-ape of past geological 
time have not been found, although earnestly looked for. 
No specimen of the stone age that has yet been discovered 


142 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the bible. 


is inferior, as already remarked, to the lowest of existing 
men; and none is intermediate in essential characters 
between man and the man-ape. Until the long period is 
bridged over by the discovery of intermediate species, it 
is certainly unsafe to declare that such a line of inter- 
mediate species ever existed, and as unphilosophical as 
it is unsafe. If, then, the present teaching of geology 
as to the origin of species is for the most part indecisive, 
it still strongly confirms the belief that man is not of 
nature’s making. Independently of such evidence, 
man’s high reason, his unsatisfied aspirations, his free 
will, all afford the fullest assurance that he owes his ex- 
istence to the special act of the Infinite Being whose 
image he bears.” 

In his great work, the Manual of Geology, Professor 
Dana makes a fine enumeration of the attributes of man, 
when speaking of the distinctions and eminence of the 
era of Mind. He says: 

‘‘Man was the first being that was not finished on 
reaching adult growth, but was provided with powers for 
indefinite expansion, a will for a life of work, and bound- 
less aspirations to lead to endless improvement. He 
was the first being capable of an intelligent survey of 
nature, and compreliension of her laws; the first capable 
of augmenting his strength by bending nature to his ser- 
vice, rendering thereby a weak body stronger than all 
possible animal force; the first capable of deriving hap- 
piness from truth and goodness; of apprehending eternal 
right; of reaching toward a knowledge of self and of 
God; the first, therefore, capable of conscious obedience 
or disobedience of any moral law,.and the first subject to 
debasement through his appetites and a moral nature. 


Geologists. | 148 


There is in man a spiritual element, in which the brute 
has no share. His power of indefinite progress, his 
thoughts and desires that look onward even beyond time, 
his recognition of spiritual existence and of a Divinity 
above, all evince a nature that partakes of the infinite 
and divine. Man is linked to the past through the 
system of life, of which he is the last, the completing 
creation. But, unlike other species of that closing 
system of the past, (significantly the Zoic era of geologi- 
cal history,) he, through his spiritual nature, is far more 
intimately connected with the opening future.” 

In the same work, the Manual of Geology, Professor 
Dana expresses his full conviction of the absolute neces- 
sity of a Being by whom the universe was created, and 
its vast machinery is kept in perfect order. He remarks: 
“Geology appears to bring us directly before the Crea- 
tor ; and, while opening to us the methods through which 
the forces of nature have accomplished his purpose,— 
while proving that there has been a plan glorious in its 
scheme and perfect in system, progressing through un- 
measured ages, and looking ever toward man and a 
spiritual end,—it leads to no other solution of the great 
problem of creation, whether of kinds of matter or of 
species of life, than this:—Deus fecit.” [God made.] 

In the same work, the Manual of Geology, Professor 
Dana, speaking of the cosmogony of the Bible, makes 
the most respectful and explicit statements in regard to 
its divine authority. He observes: ‘There is one 
ancient document on cosmogony—that of the opening 
page of the Bible—which is not only admired for its 
sublimity, but is very generally believed to be of divine 
origin.” 


144 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


After referring to the correspondences between the 
records of Geology and the records of Revelation, Pro- 
fessor Dana remarks: ‘The record in the Bidle is, 
therefore, profoundly philosophical in the scheme of 
creation which it presents. It is both true and divine. 
It is a declaration of authorship, both of Creation and 
the Bible, on the first page of the sacred volume. There] 
can be no real conflict between the two Books of the 
Great Author. Both are revelations made by him to 
man,—the earlier telling of God-made harmonies coming 
up from the deep past, and rising to their height when 
man appeared, the later teaching man’s relations to his 
Maker, and speaking of loftier harmonies in the eternal 
future.” 

Professor Dana also remarks, in another part of his 
works, in regard to the divine authenticity of the Bible: 
“The first thought that strikes the scientific reader 1s 
the evidence of divinity, not merely in the first verse of 
the record and the successive fiats, but in the whole 
order of creation. There is so much that the most 
recent readings of science have for the first time ex- 
plained, that the idea of man as the author becomes 
utterly incomprehensible. By proving the record true, 
science pronounces it divine; for who could have cor- © 
rectly narrated the secrets of eternity but God himself.” 


EBENEZER EMMONS, M.D. 

Ebenezer Emmons, State Geologist of New York, and 
also of North Carolina, and likewise Professor of Natural 
History and Geology in Williams College, thus speaks in 
his Manual of Geology, of the necessary interposition of 


Geologists. 145 


a Divine Power in the introduction of life-forms on the 
globe, during the different geologic periods: 

“The influence of the physical forces, or the crust 
movements upon the organic kingdoms, has ever been 
exhibited in a strong light, and they seem to stand in the 
relation of cause and effect. But however this may be, 
we see in the great series of movements the constant 
operation of natural causes in opposition to miraculous 
ones, in which respect the phenomena of the physical 
world stand in contrast with the organic world; for in 
the latter we have necessarily to recognize the constant 
interference of a miraculous Power in the creation of 
new organisms, to replace those which have become ex- 
tinct. The process of extinction, it is true, may be in 
obedience to a natural law; but there is in operation no 
law by which life force is imparted to matter, except 
through the special and direct will of the Creator. There 
is no spontaneous evolution of life-forms from matter; 
but all life-forms, through all the vast geologic periods, 
must be attributed to the act of one Will, in whom only 
life can emanate.” 


EDWARD HITCHCOCK, D.D., LL.D. 


One of the earliest American writers on Geology was 
Dr. Hitchcock, President of Amherst College, and Pro- 
fessor of Natural Theology and Geology. He gave great 
attention to the science, making several extensive explo- 
rations, and writing different works on the subject. His 
work on the connection between geology and religion, 
entitled The Religion of Geology and its connected 
Sciences, is one of the most learned and interesting that 


13 


146 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


has ever appeared, and has had a wide circulation on 
both sides of the Atlantic. His great modesty as an 
author, and his caution in presenting his views, are beau- 
tifully presented in the preface to the work, and should 
serve as a check to that rashness with which some men, 
not possessing one-tenth of his intellect and knowledge, 
avow their opinions, ‘ More than a quarter of a century 
has elapsed since this subject first engaged my atten- 
tion; “but really I feel less prepared to write upon it 
than I did during the first five years in which I studied 
it. Ihave learnt that itis a most difficult subject. It 
requires, in order to master it, an acquaintance with 
three distict branches of knowledge, not apt to go to- 
gether. First, an acquaintance with geology, in all its de- 
tails, and with the general principles of zoology, botany, 
and comparative anatomy: secondly, a knowledge of 
sacred hermeneutics, or the principles of interpreting the 
Scriptures: thirdly, a clear conception of the principles 
of natural and revealed religion.” 

Dr. Hitchcock, in his Religion of Geology, thus speaks 
of the durability of the Divine Word: 

‘In the midst of human opinions, veering to every 
point of the compass, the Bible has ever remained fixed 
to one point. Not so with false systems of religion. 
The Hindoo religion contains a false astronomy, as well 
as anatomy and physiology; and the Mohammedan 
Koran distinctly advances the Ptolemaic hypothesis of 
the universe; so that you have only to prove these re- 
ligions false in science in order to destroy their claim to 
infallibility. But the Bible, stating only facts, does not 
interfere with, neither is affected by, the hypotheses of 
philosophy. Often, indeed, in past ages, have men set 


Geologists. 147 


up their hypotheses as oracles in the temple of nature, to 
be consulted rather than the Bible. But like Dagon 
before the ark, they have fallen to the earth, and been 
broken in pieces before the Word of God; while this 
has ever stood and ever shall stand, in sublime simplicity 
and undecaying strength, amid the wrecks of every false 
system of philosophy and religion.” 

Dr. Hitchcock has full confidence in the ability of the 
Christian religion to defend itself from the attacks of 
infidelity, and in its ultimate triumph over all hostile 
forces. He remarks: 

“Tt is the fiftieth time in which Christianity has seemed 
to the sanguine infidel and the timorous believer to be in 
great peril; and yet not even an outpost has been lost 
in this persistent warfare. Discoveries in astronomy, 
geology, chemistry, and physiology, have often looked 
threatening for a while; but how entirely have they 
melted away before brighter light and more careful study. 
Moreover, every new assault upon Christianity seems to 
develop its inherent strength, and to weaken the power 
of its adversaries; because, once discomfited, they can 
never rise again. It will be time for the infidel to begin 
to hope, when he shall see, what he has not yet seen, a 
single stone struck from one of the bastions of this mas- 
sive fortress by his artillery. And strange that any be- 
liever should be anxious for the future, when the history 
of the past shows him that every science, which for a 
time has been forced into the ranks of the enemy, and 
made to assume a hostile attitude, has, in the end, turned 
out to be an efficient ally.” 


148 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


CHARLES LYELL. 


Sir Charles Lyell, Vice-President of the Geological 
Society of London, and author of a Manual of Elemen- 
tary Geology, or the Ancient Changes of the Earth, and 
its Inhabitants, as illustrated by Geological Monuments, 
and also of a work entitled, The Paneer of Geology, 
or the Modern Changes of the EHarth and its Inhabitants, 
considered as illustrative of Geology, has been regarded 
as one of the profoundest and most able expounders of the 
science. Histwo works, besides containing a vast amount 
of valuable information, show a mind cautious in stating 
facts, and candid in its reasonings and deductions. Like 
most other intelligent geologists, he deems the agency of 
a divine Being necessary to superintend the affairs of 
the universe. At the conclusion of his Principles of 
Geology, he remarks: 

‘‘Tf, in tracing back the earth’s history, we arrive at 
the monuments of events which may have happened 
millions of ages before our times, and if we still find no 
decided evidence of a commencement, yet the arguments 
from analogy in support of the probability of a begin- 
ning remain unshaken; and if the past duration of the 

earth be finite, then the aggregate of geological epochs, 
however numerous, must constitute a mere moment of 
the past, a mere infinitesimal portion of eternity. 

“Tt has been argued that, as the different states of the 
earth’s surface, and the different species by which it has 
beén inhabited, have all had their origin, and many of 
them their termination, so the entire series may have 
commenced at a certain period. It has also been urged, 
that, as we admit the creation of man to have occurred 


Geologists. 149 


at a comparatively modern epoch—as we concede the 
astonishing fact of the first introduction of a moral and 
intellectual being—so, also, we may conceive the first 
creation of the planet itself. 

“Tam far from denying the weight of this reasoning 
from analogy; but, although it may strengthen our con- 
viction, that the present system of change has not gone 
on from eternity, it can not warrant us in presuming 
that we shall be permitted to behold the signs of the 
earth’s origin, or the evidences of the first introduction 
into it of organic beings. We aspire in vain to assign 
limits to the works of creation in space, whether we 
examine the starry heavens, or that world of minute 
animalcules which is revealed to us by the microscope. 
We are prepared, therefore, to find that in time also the 
confines of the universe lie beyond the reach of mortal 
ken. But in whatever direction we pursue our re- 
searches, whether in time or space, we discover every- 
where the clear proofs of a Creative Intelligence, and of 
his foresight, wisdom, and power. 

“As geologists, we learn that it is not only the present 
condition of the globe which has been suited to the 
accommodation of myriads of living creatures, but that 
many former states also have been adapted to the organ- 
ization and habits of prior races of beings. The dis- 
position of the seas, continents, and islands, and the 
climates, have varied; the species have likewise been 
changed; and yet they have all been so modeled, on 
types analogous to those of existing plants and animals, 
as to indicate, throughout, a perfect harmony of design 
and unity of purpose. ‘To assume that the evidence of 
the beginning or end of so vast a scheme lies within the 


150 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


reach of our philosophical inquiries, or even of our 
speculations, appears to be inconsistent with a just esti- 
mate of the relations which subsist between the finite 
powers of man and the attributes of an Infinite and 
Eternal Being.” 


JOHN MC CAUL, D.D., LL.D. 


Dr. McCaul, after obtaining a collegiate education in 
Ireland, distinguished himself as a leading educator in 
Canada, Among the positions he held was that of Pro- 
fessor of Hebrew in King’s College. An Essay that he 
wrote, and which was published in Aids to Faith, contains 
a full and learned discussion of Hebrew words having 
reference to the six days of creation, as given in Genesis: . 
the following is a summary of results: 

‘Moses relates how God created the heavens and the 
earth at an indefinitely remote period—before the earth 
was the habitation of man. Geology has lately discov- 
ered the existence of a long prehuman period. 

“A comparison with other Scriptures shows that the 
heavens of Moses include the abode of angels, and the . 
place of the fixed stars, which existed before the earth. 
Astronomy points out remote worlds, whose light began 
its journey long before the existence of man. 

‘““Moses declares that the earth was, or became, covered 
with water, and was desolate and empty. Geology has 
found, by investigation, that the primitive globe was 
covered with a uniform ocean, and that there was a long 
Azoic period, during which neither plant nor animal 
could live. 

‘“‘ Moses states that there was a time when the earth 
was not dependent on the sun for light or heat; when, 


Geologists. 151 


therefore, there could be no climatic differences. Geology 
has lately verified this statement by finding tropical 
plants and animals scattered over all places of the earth. 

‘¢Moses affirms that the sun, as well as the moon, is 
only a light-holder. Astronomy declares that the sun is 
a non-luminous body, dependent for its light on a lumin- 
ous atmosphere. 

‘Moses asserts that the earth existed before the sun 
was given as a luminary. Modern science proposes a 
theory which explains how this was possible. 

“Moses asserts that there is an expanse extending © 
‘ from earth to the distant heights, in which the heavenly 
bodies are placed. Recent discoveries lead to the sup- 
position of some subtle fluid medium in which they move. 

‘Moses describes the process of creation as gradual, 
and mentions the order in which living things appeared, 
plants, fishes, fowls, land animals, man. By the study 
of nature, geology had arrived independently at the same 
conclusion. 

“Whence did Moses get all this knowledge? How 
was it that he worded his rapid sketch with such scien- 
tific accuracy? Ifhe, in his day, possessed the knowl- 
edge which genius and science have attained only 
recently, that knowledge is superhuman. If he did not 
possess the knowledge, then his pen must have been 
guided by superhuman wisdom.” 


HUGH MILLER. 


During the last three centuries, self-made men have 
been more numerous than in any former period of our 
world’s history; but few, if any cases, have been more 
remarkable than that of Hugh Miller, the Scotch geolo- 


152 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


gist. From being engaged in quarrying stone, he rose 
to the proud distinction of being one of the first geologists 
of the nineteenth century. Practically, no one was 
superior to him; and as a writer on the science, he 
displayed the most wonderful powers of description. 
Volume after volume was poured from his pen, that 
completely astonished the scientific world. His opening 
remarks in his work entitled, the Old Red Sandstone, 
are worthy of universal circulation, and universal ad- 
miration. The following is a brief extract: 

“My advice to young workingmen, desirous of bet- 
tering their circumstances, and adding to the amount of 
their enjoyment, is a very simple one. Do not seek 
happiness in what is misnamed pleasure: seek it rather 
in what is termed study. Keep your consciences clear, 
your curiosity fresh, and embrace every opportunity of 
cultivating your minds. Learn to make a right use of 
your eyes: the commonest things are worth looking at, 
even stones and weeds, and the most familiar animals. 
Read good books, not forgetting the best of all: there is 
more true philosophy in the Bible than in every work of . 
every skeptic that ever wrote; and we would be all 
miserable creatures without it, and none more miserable 
than you.” 

In noticing the important fact that fishes made their 
first appearance, not in their least perfect, but in their 
most perfect state, and that consequently the interposi- 
tion of divine Power was necessary for their production, 
Hugh Miller observes : 

“The argument is a very simple one. Of all the 
vertebrata, fishes rank lowest, and in geological history 
appear first. We find their remains in the upper and 


Geologists. — 153 


lower silurians; in the lower, middle, and upper old red 
sandstone; in the mountain limestone, and in the coal 
measures; and in the latter formation the first reptiles 
appear. Fishes seem to have been the master existences 
of two great systems, mayhap of three, ere the age 
of reptiles began. Now fishes differ very much among 
themselves; some rank nearly as low as worms, 
some nearly as high as reptiles; and if fish could have 
risen into reptiles, and reptiles into mammalia, we would 
necessarily expect to find lower orders of fish passing 
into higher, and taking precedence of the higher in their 
appearance in point of time, just as in the Winter’s Tale 
we see the infant preceding the adult. If such be not 
the case—if fish made their first appearance, not in their 
least perfect, but in their most perfect state—not in 
their nearest approximation to the worm, but in their 
nearest approximation to the reptile—there is no room 
for progression, and the argument falls. Now, it is a 
geological fact, that it is fish of the higher orders that 
appear first on the stage, and that they are found to 
occupy exactly the same level during the vast period 
represented by five successive formations. ‘There is no 
progression. [If fish rose into reptiles, it must have been 
by sudden transformation—it must have been as if a man 
who had stood still for half a lifetime should bestir him- 
self all at once, and take seven leagues at a stride. There 
is no getting rid of miracle in the case—there is no 
alternative between creation and metamorphosis. ‘The 
infidel substitutes progression for Deity: geology robs 
him of his god. 

‘¢But no man who enters the geological field in quest 
of the wonderful, need pass in pursuit of his object from 


154 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


the true to the fictitious. Does the reader remember 
how, in Milton’s sublime figure, the body of Truth is 
represented as hewn in pieces, and her limbs scattered 
over distant regions, and how her friends and disciples 
have to go wandering all over the world in quest of 
them? There is surely something very wonderful in the 
fact, that, in uniting the links of the chain of creation 
into an unbroken whole, we have in like manner to seek 
for them all along the scale of the geologist: some we 
discover among the tribes first annihilated: some among 
the tribes that perished at a later period: some among 
the existences of the passing time. We find the present 
incomplete without the past—the recent without the ex- 
tinct. There are marvelous analogies which pervade the 
scheme of Providence, and unite, as it were, its lower with 
its higher parts. The perfection of the works of the Deity 
is a perfection entire in its components; and yet these 
are not contemporaneous, but successive: it is a perfec- 
tion which includes the dead as well as the living, and 
bears relation, in its completeness, not to time, but to 
eternity.” 

Speaking of the vast variety of the works of the 
Creator, and the unity and wisdom of the plan every- 
where manifested, Miller observes : 

‘The wonders of geology exercise every faculty of the 
' mind—reason, memory, imagination; and though we can 
not put our fossils to the question, it is something to be 
so aroused as to be made to put questions to one’s self, 
I have referred to the consistency of style which obtained 
among these ancient fishes—the unity of character 
which marked every scale, plate, and fin of every various 
family, and which distinguished it. from the rest; and 


Geologists. 155 


who can doubt that the same shades of variety existed in 
their habits and their instincts? We speak of the in- 
finity of Deity—of his inexhaustible variety of mind ; but 
we speak of it until the idea becomes a piece of mere 
commonplace in our mouths. It is well to be brought 
to feel, if not to conceive of it—to be made to know that 
we ourselves are barren-minded, and that in him ‘all 
fullness dwelleth.’ Succeeding creations, each with its 
myriads of existences, do not exhaust him. He never 
repeats himself. The curtain drops, at his command, 
over one scene of existence full of wisdom and beauty: 
it rises again, and all is glorious, wise and beautiful as 
before, and all is new. Who can sum up the amount of 
wisdom whose record he has written in the rocks —wisdom 
exhibited in the succeeding creations of earth, ere man 
was, but which was exhibited surely not in vain? May 
we not say with Milton: 
‘Think not, though men were none, 

That heaven could want spectators, God want praise: 

Millions of spiritual creatures walked the earth, 

And these with ceaseless praise his works beheld.’ 
Tt is well to return on the record, and to read in its un- 
equivocal characters the lessons which it was intended to 
teach. Infidelity has often misinterpreted its meaning, 
but not the less on that account has it been inscribed for 
purposes alike wise and benevolent. Is it nothing to be 
taught, with a demonstrative evidence which the meta- 
physician can not supply, that races are not eternal— 
that every family had its beginning, and that whole crea- 
tions have come to an end?” 

Referring to the great changes that occurred during 

the geological ages, Miller remarks: 


156 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


“The process went on. Age succeeded age, and one 
stratum covered up another. Generations lived, died, 
and were entombed in the ever-growing depositions. 
Succeeding generations pursued their instincts by myr- 
iads, happy in existence, over the surface which covered 
the broken and perishing remains of their predecessors, 
and then died and were entombed in turn, leaving a 
higher platform, and a similar destiny to the generations 
that succeeded. Whole races became extinct, through 
what process of destruction who can tell? Other races 
sprang into existence through that adorable power which 
One only can conceive, and One only can exert. An in- 
exhaustible variety of design expatiated freely within 
the limits of the ancient type. ‘The main conditions re- 
mained the same: the minor details were dissimilar. 
Vast periods passed: a class low in the scale still contin- 
ued to furnish the master existences of creation; and so 
immensely extended was the term of its sovereignty, that 
a being of limited faculties, if such could have existed 
uncreated, and witnessed the whole, would have inferred 
that the power of the Creator had reached its extreme 
boundary, when fishes had been called into existence, 
and that our planet was destined to be the dwelling-place 
of no nobler inhabitants. If there be men dignified by 
the name of philosophers, who can hold that the present 
state of being, with all its moral evil, and all its physical 
suffering, is to be succeeded by no better and happier 
state, just because ‘all things have continued as they 
were’ for some five or six thousand years, how much 
sounder and more conclusive would the inference have 
been which could have been based, as in the supposed 


Geologists. 157 


case, on a period perhaps a hundred times more 
extended.” 

Miller then speaks of the “ wonderful analogies that 
exist in nature between the geological history of the ver- 
tebrated animals as an order, and the individual history 
of every mammifer—between the history, too, of fish as 
a class, and that of every single fish,” and asks: 

“Is there nothing wonderful in analogies such as 
these—analogies that point through the embryos of the 
present time to the womb of nature, big with its multi- 
tudinous forms of being? Are they charged with no 
such nice evidence as a Butler would delight to contem- 
plate, regarding that unique style of Deity, if I may so 
express myself, which runs through all his works, 
whether we consider him as God of Nature, or Author 
of Revelation? In this style of type and symbol did he 
reveal himself of old to his chosen people: in this style 
of allegory and parable did he again address himself to 
them, when he sojourned among them on earth.” 

Miller’s concluding remarks in his Old Red Sandstone 
are striking and original. He says: 

‘‘ We pursue our history no further. Its after course 
is comparatively well known. ~The huge sauroid fish 
was succeeded by the equally huge reptile, the reptile by 
the bird, the bird .by the marsupial quadruped; and at 
length, after races higher in the scale of instinct had 
taken precedence in succession, the one of the other, the 
sagacious elephant appeared, as the lord of that latest 
creation which immediately preceded our own. How 
natural does the thought seem which suggested itself to 
the profound mind of Cuvier, when indulging in a simi- 
lar review. Has the last scene in the series arisen, or has 


158 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


Deity expended his infinitude of resource, and reached 
the ultimate stage of progression at which perfection can 
arrive? The philosopher hesitated, and then decided in 
the negative; for he was too intimately acquainted with 
the ett: of the Omnipotent Creator to think of limit- 
ing his power 5 and he could, therefore, anticipate a 
coming period in which man would have to resign his 
post of honor to some nobler and wiser apeatueeee 
monarch of a better and happier world. How well it is, 
to be permitted to indulge in the expansion of Cuvier’s 
thought, without sharing in the melancholy of Cuvier’s 
fecling—to be enabled to look forward to the coming of 
a new heaven and a new earth, not in terror, but in 
hope—to be encouraged to believe in the system of un- 
ending progression, but to entertain no fear of the deg- 
radation or deposition of man! The adorable Monarch 
of the future, with all its unsummed perfection, has 
already passed into the heavens, flesh of our flesh, and 
bone of our bone, and Enoch and Elias are there with 
him—fit representatives of that dominant race, which 
no other race shall ever supplant or succeed, and to 
whose onward and upward march the deep echoes of 
eternity shall never cease to respond.” 

Speaking of the ge ologic prophecies of the Bible, 
Miller remarks: “Precisely so has it been with these 
latent scientific prophecies or anticipations of the Word 
of God, of which we have been speaking, which seem to 
have been so deeply imbedded in the sacred text that the 
world has not seen them hitherto, nor, indeed, could see 
them now were it not that our advancing science is re- 
vealing them. The geologic prophecies, though they 
might have been read, could not be understood till the 


Geologists. 159 


fullness of the time had come. And it is only as the 
fullness of the time comes, in the brighter light of in- 
creasing scientific knowledge, that these grand old oracles 
of the Bible, so apparently simple, but so marvelously 
pregnant with meaning, stand forth at once cleared of all 
erroneous human glosses, and vindicated as the inspired 
testimonies of Jehovah.” | 

The views of this illustrious geologist in regard to 
the Bible account of the creation are thus stated by 
Chambers : 

‘Miller once believed with Buckland and Chalmers 
that the six days of the Mosaic narrative were simply 
natural days of twenty-four hours each; but he was com- 
pelled by further study to believe that the days of crea- 
tion were not natural but prophetic days—unmeasured 
eras of time, stretching far back into the by-gone eter- 
nity. The revelation to Moses he supposes to have been 
optical—a series of visions seen in a recess of the Mid- 
ian desert, and described by the prophet in language 
fitted to the ideas of his times. The hypothesis of the 
Mosaic vision is old—as old as the time of Whiston, who 
propounded ita century and a half since; but in Miller’s 
hands the vision becomes a splendid piece of sacred 
poetry.” The following is his vision: 

“Such a description of the creative vision of Moses 
as the one given by Milton of that vision of the future 
which he represents as conjured up before Adam by the 
archangel, would be a task rather for the scientific poet 
than for the mere practical geologist or sober theologian. 
Let us suppose that it took place far from man, In an 
untrodden recess of the Midian desert, ere yet the vision 
of the burning bush had been vouchsafed ; and that, as in 


160 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


the vision of St. John in Patmos, voices were mingled 
with scenes, and the ear as certainly addressed as the 
eye. A ‘great darkness’ first falls upon the prophet, 
like that which in an earlier age fell upon Abraham, but 
without the ‘horror;’ and as the Divine Spirit moves on 
the face of the wildly troubled waters, as a visible aurora 
enveloped by the pitchy cloud, the great doctrine is 
orally enunciated, that ‘in che beginning God created the 
heavens and the earth.’ Unreckoned ages, condensed in 
the vision in a few brief moments, pass away: the crea- 
tive voice is again heard, ‘Let there be light,’ and 
straightway a gray, diffused light springs up in the east, 
and, casting its sickly gleam over a cloud-limited expanse 
of steaming, vaporous sea, journeys through the heavens 
toward the west. One heavy, sunless day is made the 
representative of myriads: the faint light waxes fainter 
—it sinks beneath the dim undefined horizon: the first 
scone of the drama closes upon the seer; and he sits 
awhile on his hill-top in darkness, solitary but not sad, in 
what seems to be a calm and starless night. 

“The light again brightens: it is day; and over an 
expanse of ocean without visible bound the horizon has 
become wider and sharper of outline than before. There 
is life in that great sea—invertebrate, mayhap also ich- 
thyic, life; but from’ the comparative distance of the 
point of view occupied by the prophet, only the slow roll 
of its waves can be discerned, as they rise and fall in 
long undulations before a gentle gale; and what most 
strongly impresses the eye is the change which has taken 
place in the atmospheric scenery. That lower stratum of 
the heavens occupied in the previous vision by seething 
steam, or gray, smoke-like fog, is clear and transparent ; 


Geologists. 161 


and only in an upper region, where the previously invis- 
ible vapor of the tepid sea has thickened in the cold, do 
the clouds appear. But there in the higher strata of the 
atmosphere, they lie, thick and manifold—an upper sea 
of great waves, separated from those beneath by the 
transparent firmament, and, like them too, impelled in 
rolling masses by the wind. <A mighty advance has 
taken place in creation; but its most conspicuous optical 
sign is the existence of a transparent atmosphere—of a 
firmament stretched out over the earth, that separates 
the waters above from the waters below. But darkness 
descends for the third time upon the seer, for the even- 
ing and the morning have completed the second day. 
“Yet, again, the light rises upon a canopy of cloud; 
but the scene has changed, and there is no longer an 
unbroken expanse of sea. The white surf breaks, at the 
distant horizon, on an insulated reef, formed mayhap by 
the Silurian or Old Red coral zoophytes ages before, 
during the by-gone yesterday ; and beats in long lines of 
foam, nearer at hand, against the low, winding shore, the 
seaward barrier of a widely spread country. For, at the 
Divine command, the land has arisen from the deep, not 
inconspicuously and in scattered islets, as at an earlier 
time, but in extensive, though flat and marshy, conti- 
nents, little raised over the sea level; and a yet further 
fiat has covered them with the great carboniferous flora. 
The scene is one of mighty forests of cone-bearing trees— 
of palms, and tree-ferns, and gigantic club-mosses, on 
the opener slopes, and of great reeds clustering by the 
sides of quiet lakes and dark rolling rivers. There is a 
deep gloom in the recesses of the thicker woods, and low 
14 


162 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


thick mists creep along the dank marsh or sluggish 
stream. But there is a general lightening of the sky 
overhead: as the day declines, a redder flush than had 
hitherto lighted up the prospect, falls athwart fern- 
covered bank and long, withdrawing glade. And while 
the fourth evening has fallen on the prophet, he becomes 
sensible, as it wears on, and the fourth dawn approaches, 
that yet another change has taken place. The Creator 
has spoken, and the stars look out from openings of deep 
unclouded blue; and as day rises, and the planet of 
morning pales in the east, the broken cloudlets are trans- 
muted from bronze into gold, and, anon, the gold be- 
comes fire, and at length the glorious sun arises out of 
the sea, and enters on his course rejoicing. It is a 
brilliant day: the waves, of a deeper and softer blue 
than before, dance and sparkle in the light: the earth, 
with little else to attract the gaze, has assumed a garb of 
brighter green; and as the sun declines amid even richer 
- glories than those which had encircled his rising, the 
moon appears, full-orbed, in the east—to the human eye 
the second great luminary of the heavens, and climbs 
slowly to the zenith as night advances, shedding its mild 
radiance on land and sea. : 
“Again the day breaks: the prospect consists, as 
before, of land and ocean. There are great pine woods, 
reed-covered swamps, wide plains, winding rivers, and 
broad lakes; and a bright sun shines over all. But the 
landscape derives its interest and novelty from a feature 
unmarked before. Gigantic birds stalk along the sands, 
or wade far into the water, in quest of their ichthyic 
food; while birds of lesser size float upon the lakes, or 
scream discordant in hovering flocks, thick as insects in 


Geologists. - 163 


the calm of a summer evening, over the narrower seas; 
or brighten, with the sunlit gleam of their wings, the 
thick woods. And ocean has its monsters: great tan- 
minim tempest the deep, as they heave their huge bulk 
over the surface, to inhale the life-sustaining air; and 
out of their nostrils goeth smoke, as out of a ‘seething 
pot or caldron.’ Monstrous creatures, armed in massive 
scales, haunt the rivers, or scour the flat rank meadows: 
earth, air,and water are charged with animal life; and 
the sun sets on a busy scene, in which unerring instinct 
pursues unremittingly its few simple ends—the support 
and preservation of the individual, the propagation of 
the species, and the protection and maintenance of the 
young. 

“Again the night descends, for the fifth day has closed; 
and morning breaks on the sixth and last day of crea- 
tion. Cattle and beasts of the field graze on the plains: 
the thick-skinned rhinoceros wallows in the marshes: the 
squat hippopotamus rustles among the reeds, or plunges 
sullenly into the river: great herds of elephants seek 
their food amid the young herbage of the woods; while 
animals of fiercer nature—the lion, the leopard, and the 
bear—harbor in deep caves till the evening, or lie in 
wait for their prey amid tangled thickets, or beneath 
some broken bank. At length, as the day wanes and 
the shadows lengthen, man, the responsible lord of crea- 
tion, formed in God’s own image, is introduced upon the 
scene, and the work of creation ceases forever upon the 
earth. The night falls once more upon the prospect, 
and there dawns yet another morrow—the morrow of 
God’s rest—that Divine Sabbath in which there is no 
more creative labor, and which ‘blessed and sanctified’ 


164 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


beyond all the days that had gone before, has, as its 
special object, the moral elevation and final redemption 
of man. And over 7 no evening is represented in the 
record as falling, for its special work is not yet com- 
plete. Such seems to have been the sublime panorama 
of creation exhibited in visions of old to 


‘The shepherd who first taught the chosen seed 
In the beginning how the heavens and earth 
Rose out of chaos;’ 


and, rightly understood, I know not a single scientific 
truth that militates against even the minutest or least 
prominent of its details.” 


JEAN PAUL. 


Jean Paul makes the following strong and unqualified 
assertion: ‘The first leaf of the Mosaic Record has 
more weight than all the folios of men of science and 
philosophers.” 


ADAM SEDGEWICK, LL.D., F.R.S. 


Adam Sedgewick, the eminent Professor of Geology in 
Cambridge University, England, was no less a humble 
disciple at the feet of Divine Revelation, than he was a 
genuine student of science. He was accustomed to say, 
that the study of nature and the religion of nature based 
upon that study, are among the appointed means of en- 
abling us to comprehend the will of God, and to do our 
duty here. ‘To use his own words: 

“We study the wonders of creation, and we believe in 
a personal Creator, so far as our reason teaches us; but 
we are surrounded with difficulties, doubts, and darkness, 


Geologists. 166 


if we go no further; for by nature we see but in part, 
and we neither comprehend the attributes of God, nor the 
whole scheme of his providence: hence, if we dwell too 
much among the material elements of nature, we may 
become skeptics, idolaters, or pantheists. But religion 
steps in, and helps us, and instructs us by a brighter and 
better light. The true resting-point is a reception, both 
in heart and head, of a Great First Cause—the One God 
—the Creator of all worlds, and all things possessing 
life.” 

Professor Sedgewick makes some excellent remarks on 
thoroughly studying both science and theology, and man- 
ifesting a spirit of candor when speaking of their truths. 
He observes: 

“A study of the natural world teaches not the truths 
of revealed religion, nor do the truths of religion inform 
us of the inductions of physical science. Hence it is 
that men, whose studies are too much confined to one 
branch of knowledge, often learn to overrate themselves, 
and so become narrow-minded. Bigotry is a besetting 
sin of our nature. Too often has it been the attencant 
of religious zeal; but it is perhaps the most bitter and 
unsparing when found among the irreligious. A philcso- 
pher, not understanding one atom of their spirit, will 
sometimes scoff at the labors of religious men; and one 
who calls himself religious will, perhaps, return a like 
harsh judgment, and thank God that he is not as the 
philosophers, forgetting, all the while, that man can 
ascend to no knowledge except by faculties given to him 
by his Creator’s hand, and that all natural knowledge is 
but a reflection of the will of God. In harsh judgments, 
such as these, there is not only much folly, but much sin, 


166 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


True wisdom consists in seeing how all the faculties of 
the mind and all parts of knowledge bear upon each 
other, so as to work together to a common end; minis- 
tering at once to the happiness of man, and his Maker's 
glory.” 

SANBORN TENNEY. 

Sanborn Tenney, Professor of Natural History in 
Williams College, in the concluding remarks to his work 
on Geology, makes the following sensible observations: 

“This truth, the great antiquity of the earth, so plainly 
taught in nature’s own records, is one which has caused 
the science of Geology to be looked upon with suspicion, 
by those who believe the Sacred Scriptures limit the age 
of the world to six thousand years. And this truth is 
often assailed as though it were the peculiar property of 
the geologist, while it is a truth which belongs to all 
mankind. It had not its origin with man, but with God. 
It was registered in enduring characters ere man was 
created. And I will not attempt to say whether it be 
worse to deny the truths which he has revealed in his 
Word, or those which he has revealed in his works.” “If 
such be the testimony of the rocks, we may safely aver 
that it is not contradicted by the Bible; for have not the 
volume of Nature and the volume of Inspiration the 
same great Author? ' The greatest scholars of the pres- 
ent time are fully satisfied that the Bible does not fix the 
age of the earth; and that the word which is translated 
day does not always mean a period of twenty-four hours, 
nor always even the same amount of time, as may be 
readily proved by referring to the different places where 
it is used.” ‘If we regard the six days mentioned in 
Genesis as representing successive long periods of time, 


Geologists. 167 


the apparent difficulty disappears, and the records agree 
in all their essential features. How preposterous the 
idea that there is any conflict between the two records! 
Not less so is the Suen to set sorter aside, by denying 
its true interpretation.’ 

In the same work on Geology, Prof. Tenney has some 
excellent thoughts on the unity and perfection of the 
Divine plan as manifested in creation. He says: 

“Another great truth which geology and connected 
sciences clearly reveal, is, that every thing in nature ig 
built upon a plan. This truth is the more plainly seen 
and felt, the more the facts of nature are studied in their 
natural relations. There is no sucha thing as an isolated 
fact in the physical world. Each connects itself with 
another, and all are necessary to a perfect whole. To 
study Fae of nature separately is one thing; to study 
them in their true relations is quite another. In one 
case, we are learning the alphabet: in the other, we are 
reading the sublimest truths which that alphabet can be 
used to express. So far as we study the facts of nature 
in their natural relations, and understand their true 
significance, so far do we become acquainted with the 
thoughts of the Author of Nature ere creation began; 
for nature is but a full and tangible expression of those 
thoughts which were matured in the Divine Mind before 
the foundation of the world. The beautiful chemical 
combinations of elements, the mathematical exactness of 
crystallized mineral forms, the structure and growth of 
plants, the animal kingdom as it now appears on the 
earth, exhibit forethought—they reveal a plan. And in 
the succession of animal life upon our globe, a plan is 


168 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


revealed, ‘grand in its outlines, and beautiful in its 
execution.’ 

“Geology shows that the earth, during those long 
periods that rolled away, while it was passing from a 
state of chaos to the delightful garden we now find it, 
was inhabited by races of animals exactly suited to its 
condition. No fact in geology is better established than 
that there has been a succession of races of animal life 
upon the earth, each higher inrank than the preceding. 
We find higher orders, and in some of the branches higher 
classes, as we pass from the earliest to the latest life- 
periods of the globe. We find that all these races 
have been built upon certain plans. Radiates, Mol- 
lusks, Articulates, and Vertebrates, are the four types 
after which all the animals, both of the present 
and the past have been built, excepting always the 
Protozoans. Geology shows that there is no such thing 
as the development of lower species into higher. It has 
been a favorite belief with many people, and some phil- 
osophers, that the higher animals are but the results of 
continued improvements on the lowest forms of life. 
Our science shows that this belief does not rest on a good 
foundation. Animals of the four great types appeared 
upon the earth in profusion so nearly simultaneously that 
we may well believe’ that no branch or type has been 
developed from another. 

‘Upon the great plan wrought out in the Divine Mind 
the successive races have appeared. Hach succeeding 
race bears the impress o/ the original idea, yet it is an 
entirely new creation. Nature has not repeated herself, 
but every-where is the greatest diversity consistent with 
unity. If we look at the branch of vertebrates, the high- 


Geologists. 169 


est of the animal kingdom, we find it represented in the 
earliest ages, by the lowest class, fishes. Ages later, 
reptiles are introduced: later still, birds are added: and 
in the tertiary, the true mammals make their appearance : 
and last of all man appears upon the earth; yet the plan 
was unaltered during all these changes, and remains the 
same to-day, as when God spoke life into existence. 
The great idea which found its highest expression in 
man, was shadowed forth in the earliest paleozoic fishes. 
How significant these facts! The race of vertebrates 
did not end with fishes, nor reptiles, nor birds, nor mere 
mammals, but with man. The highest expression possi- 
ble upon the vertebral plan had not been made till the 
introduction of him whom God created in his own image! 

“The great plan of the Creator is still further revealed, 
when we consider the wonderful provisions he has made 
for the benefit of his creatures ; and especially for man, 
his last creation ; and not a plan only, but Divine Benev- 
olence is strikingly exhibited, and to a degree excelled 
only by that presented in the Gift which was made as a 
provision for man’s immaterial and higher nature. Who 
reflects upon the wonderful supply of all those materials 
so useful and necessary in the various pursuits of life, 
and is not fully convinced that the earth has been going 
through a long series of changes, preparatory to the re- 
ception of man? The earth was filled with rocks, and 
metals, and treasures, necessary for man’s use, ages before 
he was created. The vast storehouse of fuel, in the form 
of coal, which is now locked up in the earth, subject to 
the demands of human labor, floated in the atmosphere 
of an age long since past. At that age, neither man nor 


15 


170 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


any land animal could exist, as the air was charged with 
a deadly gas. The carbonic acid might have been swept 
away by a single stroke of the Divine Hand, but a great 
plan was to be fulfilled: the earth was to become the 
home of man, and this carbon was to be preserved for 
his use. The vegetation secured the carbon; and thus 
the air was purified. The vegetation became entombed 
in the bosom of the earth; and after slumbering there 
for untold centuries, comes to-day to benefit and bless 
mankind. This carbon was buried far beneath the rocky 
strata: but the rocky covering of the earth has been 
broken, and its treasures brought within the reach of 
human industry. Every page of geologic history unfolds 
the wonderful provision which the Author of Nature 
made for the advent of his last creation. 

“Tn a proper contemplation of the facts registered in 
the crust of the earth, what a field opens before us! We 
begin to see how vast are the works of God. The mind 
seems to run back through the long-slumbering ages, and 
note the changes our planet has undergone. It gets a 
glimpse of the scenes as they passed in the slow, yet 
ever-revolving centuries. We get a faint view of the 
great plan the Author of Nature has made and carried 
out. <A world of disorder is transformed into one of life 
and beauty; peopled at different stages of its existence 
with beings suited to its condition; improved with each 
successive change, until it is as a delightful garden, 
where the fragrance of flowers sweetens every breeze, 
and crystal streams flow, whose ascending vapors make 
green the overhanging branches, where sweet warblers 
sing from fullness of joy ;—when man is created, endowed 
with those god-like powers and faculties which enable 


Geologists. 171. 


him to fathom the past to some extent, to comprehend 
and enjoy the present, and to look forward with bright 
anticipations to the great future.” 


WILLIAM WHEWELL, D.D. 


Professor Whewell, master of Trinity College, Cam- 
bridge, England, and author of the History of the Induc- 
tive Sciences, has shown in his writings, a wide range of 
knowledge, united with fine powers of expression. He 
was also author of one of the series of the Bridgewater 
Treatises, in which astronomy and general physics are 
brought to illustrate natural theology. In this last-named 
work, he says: 

“A law supposes an agent and a power; for it is the 
mode according to which the agent proceeds, the order 
according to which the power acts. Without the pres- 
ence of such an agent, of such a power, conscious of the 
relations on which the law depends, producing the effects 
which the law prescribes, the law can have no efficiency, 
no existence. Hence we infer that the intelligence by 
which the law is ordained, the power by which it is put 
in action, must be present at all times, and in all places 
where the effects of the law occur; that thus the knowl- 
edge and the agency of the divine Being pervade every 
portion of the universe, producing all action and passion, 
all permanence and change. The laws of nature are the 
laws which He, in his wisdom, prescribes to his own acts: 
his universal presence is the necessary condition of any 
course of events: his universal agency the only origin of 
any efficient force.” 


172 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bable. 


ALEXANDER WINCHELL, LL.D. 


Dr. Winchell, Professor in the University of Michigan, 
has published several works on Geology, and its wonder- 
ful revelations. He has an unusually attractive style of 
writing, and throws a real charm around his favorite 
science: moreover, he constantly directs the reader's 
mind to the agency of the all-wise Creator. In the Pre- 
face to his Sketches of Creation, he thus speaks of the 
religious tendency of science: | 

The author “can not resist the conviction that Nature 
is intended as a revelation of God to all intelligences. 
If it be so intended, Nature-must be capable of fulfilling 
the offices of a revelation, and a knowledge of her phe- 
nomena and laws must afford the data of a theology. 
Despite the skepticism, of a certain school of recent 
writers, the phenomena of the universe continue to in- 
spire in the soul of man, emotions of religious reverence 
and worship. To the mass of mind, as to the intelligence 
of Socrates, and Plato, and Kepler, and Newton, and 
Galen, and Paley, and Buckland, the order of the Cosmos 
proclaims an Infinite Intelligence. The author has no 
fear that the ultimate analysis of the grounds of this 
belief will result. ia showing them unreal or unsatisfac- 
tory to a critical philosophy.” 

“The elucidation of the great problems of philosophic 
or speculative theology, is, indeed, the highest function 
of science. All our learning would, in reality, be but 
the ‘vanity,’ which it is sometimes reproached with 
being, if it could reflect no light upon the origin, the 
nature, the duty, and the destiny of man. It is not for 
its facts, but for the significance of the facts, that science 


Heathens. by 


is valuable. To accumulate the data of science is good : 
to interpret them is the noblest prerogative of a thinking 
being. Science is interpreted in theology: science, 
prosecuted to its conclusions, leads to God.” 


HEATHENS. 


ARISTOTLE. 


One of the most beautiful and striking passages, illus- 
trating the existence and agency of divine power in the 
work of creation, is a Fragment of Aristotle, preserved 
by Cicero in his De Natura Deorum. It, of course, refers 
to the supposed work of a plurality of Gods; but by 
substituting one Supreme, all-powerful God, the passage 
becomes still more beautiful and striking: 

“If there were beings who lived in the depths of the 
earth, in dwellings adorned with statues, and paintings, 
and every thing which is possessed in rich abundance by 
those whom we esteem fortunate; and if these beings 
could receive tidings of the power and might of the gods, 
and could then emerge from their hidden dwellings 
through the open fissures of the earth to the places which 
we inhabit—if they could suddenly behold the earth, and 
the sea, and the vault of heaven—could recognize the 
expanse of the cloudy firmament and the might of the 
winds of heaven, and admire the sun in its majesty, 
beauty, and radiant effulgence—and, lastly, when night 
veiled the-earth in darkness, could they behold the starry 
heavens, the changing moon, and the stars rising and set- 
ting in the unvarying course ordained from eternity— 


174 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


they would surely exclaim: There are gods, and such 
great things must be the work of their hands.” 


MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 


Cicero, the great Roman statesman, orator, and philos- 
opher, although he held to a plurality of gods, yet speaks 
frequently of One as supreme—the Creator and Pre- 
server of all things. The following passages are selected 
from his writings: 

‘There is no animal besides man which has any knowl- 
edge of God. And among men there is no nation so 
uncultivated as not to know that God is to be held in rev- 
erence, even if it does not know what kind of reverence 
ought to be rendered. Inasmuch as the established 
agreement of all nations in every respect is the voice of. 
nature and the evidence of truth, it ought to be acknowl- 
edged that there exists some Divine Power.” 

‘‘ Who is so insane that, when he looks up to the heay- 
ens, does not perceive that there is a God?” 

‘The beauty of the world, the order of celestial things, 
the revolution of the sun, moon, and all the stars, indi- 
cate sufficiently to the slightest observer, that all these 
objects do not exist by chance; and they compel us to 
acknowledge that nature “is something trarfscendently 
glorious and ever-during, which ought to be admired by 
the human race.” 

“If any one should go into a dwelling, or into a 
school-room, and should there see a diversity of things, 
with order and discipline, he would perceive that some 
one presided, to whom obedience was rendered: so if any 
one should behold the perpetual and regular motions, 
changes, and order of objects so glorious and great [as 


Heathens. Mia 


those of the universe,] he would be compelled to ac- 
knowledge that all these wonders were governed by some 
intelligent Mind. But when neither human mind nor 
human power is able to accomplish this, God alone must 
be the Architect.and Ruler of so vast and complicated a 
work.” 

‘The opinions of the ancient philosophers concerning 
the nature of God were various and dissimilar, and it 
would take a long time and would be difficult to enumer- 
ate them. Nature being their guide, they perceived that 
a God exists; but they were not agreed among them- 
selves as to what God is. When King Hiero inquired of 
Simonides, who was a fine poet and a learned and wise 
man, what God is, he asked for a day to consider the 
question. The King making the same inquiry the next 
day, he asked for two days; and, day after day, he con- 
tinued doubling the number. Wondering at the delay, 
the King inquired why he was so long in returning an 
answer. To which, Simonides replied: ‘Because the 
longer-I consider the question, the more obscure it be- 
comes to me.’” 

“That sagacious animal, foreseeing, observing, and full 
of reflection, which we call man, has been created by the 
Supreme God, with a noble constitution. For he alone, 
out of so many kinds of animals, is capable of reason 
and thought, which all the rest are destitute of. More- 
over, what is more excellent than reason? Inasmuch as 
it increases in power, going on to perfection, it is rightly 
called wisdom.” 

“The advantages of life which we use, the light which 
we enjoy, and the air which we breathe, are given and 
communicated to us from God.” 


176 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


“Tf Religion were wholly destroyed, the peace and 
happiness of life would be destroyed, and great confusion 
would follow. Nay, I do not know but that if piety 
toward the gods were extinguished, even faith, and the 
fraternity of the human race, and that most excellent 
virtue, justice, would be entirely unknown.” 

Cicero, in one of his addresses, speaks in glowing 
terms of the influence of the religious element in the 
city of Rome. He remarks: 

‘However much we may be disposed to exalt our ad- 
vantages, it is, nevertheless, certain that we have been 
surpassed in population by the Spaniards, in physical 
force by the Gauls, in shrewdness and cunning by Car- 
thage, in the fine arts by Greece, and in mere native 
talents by some of our Italian fellow-countrymen; but in 
the single point of attention to religion we have excelled 
all other nations, and it is to the favorable influence of 
this circumstance upon the character of the people that 
I account for our success in acquiring the political and 
military ascendancy we now enjoy throughout the world.” 
Of course, it is understood that the religion here spoken 
of by Cicero, was the Pagan religion—a religion that 
consisted of imaginary gods and false modes of worship, 
and that even sanctioned immoral practices; and if good 
was produced by this impure religion, how much greater 
the good promoted by the holy religion of the divine 
Teacher, Jesus Christ. 

The following passages on the Immortality of the Soul, 
are from Cicero’s Essay on Old Age. In this Essay, 
Cicero represents Cato as addressing Scipio and Leelius, 
who were then comparatively young. Cicero, however, 


Heathens. 177 


remarks that the Essay fully expresses his own senti- 
ments : 

‘When I consider the faculties with which the human 
mind is endued; its amazing celerity; its wonderful 
power in recollecting past events, and sagacity in dis- 
cerning future ; together with its numberless discoveries 
in the several arts and sciences; I feel a conscious con- 
viction that this active, comprehensive principle can not 
possibly be of a mortal nature.” 

“Tell me, my friends, whence is it that those men who 
have made the greatest advances in true wisdom and 
genuine philosophy, are observed to meet death with the 
most perfect equanimity, while the ignorant and unim- 
proved part of our species generally see its approach 
with the utmost discomposure and reluctance? Is it not 
because the more enlightened the mind is, and the farther 
it extends its view, the more. clearly it discerns in the 
hour of its dissolution (what narrow and vulgar souls are 
too short-sighted to discover) that it is taking its flight 
into some happier region ? 

“For my own part, I feel myself transported with the 
most ardent impatience to join the society of my two de- 
parted friends, your illustrious fathers, whose characters I 
greatly respected, and whose persons I sincerely loved. 
Nor is this my earnest desire confined to these excellent 
persons alone, with whom I was formerly connected. I 
ardently wish to visit also those celebrated worthies, of 
whose honorable conduct I have heard and read much, or 
whose virtues I have myself commemorated in some of 
my writings. To this glorious assembly I am speedily 
advancing; and I would not be turned back in my jour- 


178 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


ney, even on the assured condition that my youth, like 
that of Pelias, should be again restored. 

“Q glorious day! when I shall retire from this low 
and sordid scene, to associate with the divine assembly 
of departed spirits ; and not with those only whom I have 
just mentioned, but with my dear Cato, that best of sons 
and most valuable of men! It was my sad fate to lay 
his body on the funeral pile, when by the course of nature 
I had reason to hope he would perform the same last sad 
office for mine. His soul, however, did not desert me, 
but still looked back on me in its flight to those happy 
mansions, to which he was assured I should one day fol- 
low him. If I seemed to bear his death with fortitude, 
it was, by no means, that I did not most sensibly feel the 
loss I had sustained: it was because I supported myself 
with the consoling reflection that we could not long be 
separated. 

“Thus to think, and thus to act, has enabled me, 
Scipio, to bear up under a load of years with that ease 
and complacency, which both you and Lelius have so 
frequently, it seems, remarked with admiration ; as, in- 
deed, it has rendered my old age not only no inconven- 
ient state to me, but even an agreeable one. And, after 
all, should this my firm persuasion of the soul’s immor- 
tality prove to be a mere delusion, it is at least a pleas- 
ing delusion; and I will cherish it to my latest breath. 
I have the satisfaction in the meantime to be assured, 
that if death should utterly extinguish my existence, as 
some minute philosophers assert, the groundless hope I 
entertain of an after-life in some better state can not 
expose me to the derision of these wonderful sages, when 
they and I shall be no more.” 


Heathens. 179 


Cicero, in his work on the Immortality of the Soul, 
gives the following forcible argument in support of his 
belief: “ We did not come into being without some pur- 
pose; we did not spring from chance; but there was 
some Power, who exercised an oversight respecting the 
human race. Nor would such a Power bring that into 
being, or continue to support it, which, when it had 
endured so many labors, should sink down in everlasting 
death. No: there is some haven of rest, some asylum 
prepared for us.” 

In the same work, Cicero, after a sublime passage, in 
which he argues, from the works of creation and provi- 
dence, the existence of a Creator and Governor of all 
things, subjoins the following remark: “So the soul of 
man, although you do not see it, (and in like manner you 
do not see God,) yet, as you acknowledge the, being of a 
God, from the consideration of his works, so you should 
acknowledge the divine energy of the soul, from its 
memory, invention, celerity of motion, and every kind 
of virtue adorned with beauty.” 


HORATIUS FLACCUS, QUINTUS. 


Horace was one of Rome’s most celebrated poets, and 
his productions continue to be read in our institutions of 
learning to the present day. He thus strongly expresses 
his belief in One Supreme Being: 


‘“Who guides below and rules above, 
The great Disposer, and the mighty King: 
Than He none greater, next him none, 
That can be, is, or was: 
Supreme He singly fills the Throne.” 


180 = Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


PLATO. 


Plato, the celebrated Athenian, distinguished himself 
so highly by his devotion to philosophy, or the love of 
wisdom, that he received the appellation of the divine. 
To the opinions of Heraclitus, Pythagoras, and Socrates, 
he added the information he had acquired by travel and 
observation. The sect of philosophers he established 
was considered of a higher order than any that had 
previously existed. The following is an abridged out- 
line of his philosophical system, as given in the Encyclo- 
pedia of Religious Knowledge. In several respects it 
was excellent, but still inferior to the wisdom that is 
from above. 

“That there is one God, eternal, immutable, and im- 
material; perfect in wisdom and goodness, omniscient 
and omnipresent: that this all-perfect Being formed the 
universe out of a mass of eternally pre-existing matter, 
to which he gave form and arrangement: that the soul 
of man was derived by emanation from God: that the 
relation which the human soul, in its original constitution, 
bears to matter, is the source of moral evil: that the soul 
is immortal; and by disengaging itself from all animal 
passions, and rising above sensible objects to the con- 
templation of the world of intelligence, it may be pre- 
pared to return to its original habitation. 

‘The Platonic system makes the perfection of morality 
to consist in living in conformity to the will of God, the 
only standard of truth, and teaches that our highest good 
consists in the contemplation and knowledge of the Su- 
preme Being. 

“In this Divine Being, Plato admitted a sort of Trin- 
ity, of three hypostases. The first he considered as 
self-existent, calling him, by way of eminence, the Being, 


Heathens. 181 


or the One. The only attribute which he acknowledged 
in this person was goodness; and, therefore, he fre- 
quently styles him the Good. The second he considered 
as the Mind, or Logos, the Wisdom or Reason of the 
former, and the Maker of the world. The third he 
always speaks of as the Soul of the world. He taught 
that the second is a necessary emanation from the first, 
and the third from the second, or perhaps from both; 
comparing aoe emanations to those of light and heat 
from the sun.’ 

“The end of all knowledge, or eeohloeaphy according 
to Plato, was to make us resemble the Deity as much as 
is compatible with human nature. This likeness consists 
in the possession and practice of all the moral virtues.” 

Plato had exalted views of man’s nature and destiny, 
as the following shows: ‘“ Man is not an earthly and un- 
movable plant, but a heavenly one, the head raising the 
body erect as from a root, and directed upward toward 
heaven.” | 

From the following it seems Plato regarded atheists as 
insincere: ‘There are few men so obstinate in their 
atheism whom a pressing danger will not reduce to an 
acknowledgment of the Divine Power.” 


PLUTARCH. 


Plutarch, the biographer and moralist, speaking of the 
universality of religion in some form, remarks: “ Yea, 
shouldst thou wander through the earth, thou mayest find 
cities without walls, without a king, without palaces, with- 
out coin, without theater or gymnasium; but never wilt 
thou behold a city without a god, without prayer, without 
oracle, without sacrifice. Sooner might a city stand 


182 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


without ground than a state sustain itself without re- 
ligion. This is the cement of all society, and the sup- 
port of all legislation.” 


L. ANNAUS SENECA. 


Seneca was a celebrated moral philosopher, who flour- 
ished at Rome in the first century of the Christian era. 
His writings consist of Letters and of treatises on Anger, 
Consolation, Providence, Tranquillity of Mind, Philo- 
sophical Constancy, Clemency, The Shortness of Life, 
Philosophical Retirement, and Benefits, with some others. 
He resided in the city when St. Paul was a prisoner 
there; and some think that he got several of his religious 
ideas from the Apostle, but others regard this as alto- 
gether improbable. In some parts of his writings, he 
speaks of God, and in others of the gods, which shows 
that he was far from having the true light. Still he had 
considerable knowledge of God, his nature, and man’s 
relation to him, as the following extracts show. 

In his thirty-first Letter, he thus speaks of God as a 
Spirit: ‘Even from a corner it is possible to spring up 
into heaven: rise, therefore, and form thyself into a 
fashion worthy of God: thou canst not do this, however, 
with gold and silver: an image like to God can not be 
formed out of such materials as these.” 

In his eighty-third Letter, he thus speaks of God’s all- 
seeing eye: “What advantage is it that any thing is 
hidden from man? Nothing is closed to God: He is 
present to our minds, and enters into our central 
thoughts.” 

In his forty-first Letter, he thus speaks of God’s in- 
dwelling presence: “God is near you, is with you, is 


Heathens. 183 


bd 


within you:” “Sacred Spirit dwells within us, the ob- 
server and guardian of all our evil and our good:” 
“there is no good man without God.” 

In his one hundred and twenty-fourth Letter, he thus 
speaks of imitating God: “Let man aim at the good 
which belongs to him. What is this good? <A mind re- 
formed and pure, the imitator of God, raising itself above 
things human, confining all its desires within itself.” 

An interesting article, entitled Seneca and St. Paul, by 
Canon F. W. Farrar, is published in the Elzevir Library, 
in which the writings of the two are contrasted. 


SOCRATES. 


Socrates, who, it is generally admitted, was the wisest 
of the heathen philosophers, firmly believed in several of 
the doctrines of religion, as, the existence of a Supreme 
Being, though he held to other gods subordinate ; a super- 
intending Providence; a divine messenger that would be 
sent from heaven to teach mankind infallible truth; a 
ministering angel that always attended him; the immor- 
tality of the soul, with rewards for the virtuous and 
punishments for the vicious. Cicero thus refers to his 
belief in a future state: 

* This incomparable philosopher, without once varying 
to the opposite side of the question, (as his custom was 
on many other controverted subjects,) steadily and firmly 
asserted that the human soul is a divine and immortal 
substance; that death opens a way for its return to the 
celestial mansions; and that the spirits of those just men 
who have made the greatest progress in the paths of 
virtue find the easiest and most expeditious admittance.” 

Just before the cup of poison was brought to Socrates, 


184 = Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


while entertaining his friends with a discourse on the 
immortality of the soul, he uttered these memorable 
words: ‘“ Whether or no God will approve my actions, I 
know not; but this I am sure of, that.I have at all times 
made it my endeavor to please him, and I have a good 
hope that this my endeavor will be accepted of him.” 

This illustrious philosopher was of the opinion that 
God would send a divine Teacher to enlighten mankind in 
regard to their moral duties. Speaking of him, he says: 
‘“‘He is one who has now a concern for us. He is a per- 
son that has a wonderful readiness and willingness to 
take away the mist from the mind of man, and enable 
us to distinguish rightly between good and evil.” 


HEATHENS CONVERTED. 


ATHENAGORAS. 


Tn the second century of the Christian era, there lived 
a heathen philosopher of the name of Athenagoras, who 
had formed so unfavorable an opinion of the Christian 
religion, that he determined to write a book against: it. 
In order to make his work as complete as possible, he 
thought it necessary to read the Sacred Writings; and 
the evidence in favor of their authenticity carried such 
conviction to his mind, that he changed his purpose, and 
wrote an elaborate book, entitled, An Apology for the 
Christians—a book that is still extant. History informs 
us that this illustrious convert became the first president 
of the Catechetical school of Alexandria. 


Heathens Converted. | 185 


LUCIUS C. LACTANTIUS. 


Lactantius, a philosopher, who flourished about the 
year 306 of the Christian era, paid high eulogies on the 
excellence of the moral precepts of the Christian religion. 
He was at first a heathen, but subsequently became con- 
verted to Christianity ; and, in recording his sentiments, 
he but gives the results of hisown experience. He says: 

“They are not Christians, but pagans, who rob by land, 
and commit piracy by sea; who poison their wives for 
their dowries, or their husbands that they may marry 
their adulterers; who strangle, or expose their infants, 
and even abuse their own daughters, sisters, mothers, or 
vestals; who prostitute their bodies to unnatural lusts, 
seek heaven by witchcraft, and commit other crimes 
odious to relate.” 

“Daily experience demonstrates, of how great value 
to the human mind, are the precepts of God, in their 
simplicity and truth. Give me a man passionate, un- 
governable, abusive in his language: with a very few of 
the words of God, I will return him to you as placid as 
a lamb. Give me a greedy, avaricious, and grasping 
man, and forthwith I will restore him to you a liberal 
being, casting forth his money by handfuls. Give me a 
man afraid of pain or death, and without delay, he shall 
learn to despise the cross, the fire, the torture, and every 
danger. Give me a debauched man, an adulterer, and 
you shall immediately behold him sober, chaste, and con- 
tinent. Give me a cruel, blood-thirsty man, and _ in- 
stantly his ferocity shall be changed into true mild- 
ness. Give me an unjust, a foolish, a depraved person, 


16 


186 = Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


and suddenly he shall become upright, discreet, and in- 
nocent. Such is the virtue of divine wisdom, that when 
it is inspired into the heart of man, it at once expels 
folly, that fruitful source of evil; to the accomplishment 
of which, neither wealth, nor books, nor deep study are 
required. Its benefits are conferred without. reward, 
without difficulty, without delay; only let the ears be 
opened, and the heart athirst for wisdom. Which of the 
philosophers could ever effect such a moral improvement 
of himself, or others? Philosophy never achieved more 
than the concealment of vice; it could not destroy it: 
whereas but a few of the precepts of God shall so wholly 
change a man, that he shall not be identified with his 
former self.” 
NAIMBANNA. 

In the year 1791, Naimbanna, a black prince, arrived 
in Engiand, from the neighborhood of Sierra Leone. The 
gentleman, to whose care he was intrusted, took great 
pains to instruct him in the truths of the Bible; and he 
received its holy teachings with great reverence and 
simplicity. That which seemed to convince him, more 
than any thing else, as to its divine authority, was the 
beneficial influence of its practical lessons. He one day 
made the remark: ‘When I observed all good men 
respecting the Bible, and calling it the Word of God, 
and all bad men despising it, I was then sure that it 
must be what good men called it, the Word of God.” 


RAMMOHUN ROY. | 
Rammohun Roy, a learned Brahmin, first studied in 
his native country, India, and then traveled in Persia, 
and other oriental lands. He was acquainted with ten 


Heathens Converted. 187 


languages, and published works in five. He issued a 
work entitled, Against the Idolatry of all Religions. On 
turning his attention to the Christian religion, he became 
strongly impressed with its superior morality, and pub- 
lished a work entitled, the Precepts of Jesus, the Guide 
to Peace and Happiness. He was appointed envoy to 
England in 1830, by the emperor of Delhi, on some im- 
portant business, and while there obtained extensive 
knowledge of England, and also of France. By mingling 
with European society, he became fully convinced that 
religious belief is the only sure ground-work of virtue. 
He was frequently heard to say, “If I were to settle 
with my family in Europe, I would never introduce them 
to any but religious persons; and from amongst them 
only would I select my friends; for amongst them I find 
such kindness and friendship, that I feel as if surrounded 
by my own kindred.” 


RABU K. C. SEN. 


In a great hall in Calcutta, some time ago, Rabu 
Keshub Chandra Sen, a Hindoo gentleman, gave utter- 
ance to some noble sentiments, relative to the character 
of Jesus Christ, amid the vociferous applause of two 
thousand educated natives. A more eloquent testimony 
can not be found in all the writings of our learned 
divines. He said: 

“‘T have yet to show you the noblest example in all 
history of self-consecration to the service of God and 
man—that of Jesus Christ. You know his life possibly 
better than Ido. The four gospels you have often read. 
Imagine, if you can, a Jesus Christ not afraid to meet 
public odium—a Christ wholly prepared to sacrifice per- 


188 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


sonal interests to human good. Before you can deny 
this Christ, you must blot out all the nobler nations of 
history. He laid down his life for the millions of the 
human race. Here is encouragement for you. Jesus 
Christ died for all men, and poured out his blood like 
water. His preaching is full of eloquence. Many a 
nation loves to worship him. He lives amongst us still, 
to elevate us and to bless us; and we can not think of 
him but with the profoundest reverence. Remember 
Jesus and him crucified, and you will learn how great, 
how triumphant, life may be, with no human encourage- 
ment, and without help, except from God. How true his 
words: ‘If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye 
shall say unto this mountain, remove hence to yonder 
place, and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossi- 
ble to you. If you have read the Bible, (and what 
Brahmo does not read it,) you see in Jesus the grandest 
of all models of self-sacrifice. Who but must be stirred 
and quickened by that crucifixion scene, where Christ 
allows himself to be sacrificed by an indignant and irri- 
tated mob. Jesus lived but to die; and, dying for the 
truth, he lives eternally: nor even now lives for self, but 
to show that salvation, such as his, waits for all who will 
enter it by the love of man and the love of God. You 
can believe in the simplicity of Socrates: you may catch 
from Luther his boldness, his moral heroism, in proclaim- 
ing religious liberty ; but from Jesus Christ you can learn 
a mountain-moving faith, and a holy patience to bear op- 
probrium ; even as he, in perfect trust, allowed himself 
to be sacrificed with thieves. If, as true Brahmoes, you 
have learned to say, with the dying Jesus to the Father, 
‘Thy will be done,’ then you are not afraid of spilling 


Heathens Converted. 189 


your blood for God and his truth. You will freely scat- 
ter it over millions of men, if you have understood or 
caught fis great spirit, who said, ‘Take no thought for 
your life, what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink; nor 
for the body, what ye shall put on. Say not that this 
spirit is impossible to you, because it is practically 
ignored by numbers of the Christian world. Have in 
Jesus more faith than they. Then, giving up all-for God 
and your country, food shall come down for you as dew 
for the lilies. He that feeds the ravens will not forget 
you. God help us to pray for the soul’s good, and not 
merely for the body. Deliver us, O Heavenly Father, 
from inglorious, mean, and sordid sins. Let us imitate 
the wisdom and true greatness of Christ, and walk in his 
spirit now and forever.” 

In other parts of his Address, did this distinguished 
Hindoo refer to Christ and Christianity ; and never but 
in terms of high commendation; and his statements were 
always received with shouts of applause. He concluded 
by saying, that the chief mission of Christ into the world 
was to die for the iniquities of us all, and to set us the 
perfect example of a beautiful and holy life; and he 
earnestly craved an interest in the prayers of the Chris- 
tian community, and especially of Christian missionaries. 


HISTORIANS. 


GEORGE BANCROFT. 


Bancroft, whose elaborate History of the United States 
is a monument of great research and profound wisdom, 


190 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


thus speaks of the imperishability of truth and the ulti 
mate triumph of Christianity: 

“Philosophy has sometimes forgotten God; as great 
people never did. The skepticism of the last century 
could not uproot Christianity, because it lived in the 
hearts of the millions. Do you think that infidelity is 
spreading? Christianity never lived in the hearts of so 
many millions as at this moment. The forms under 
which it is professed may decay ; for they, like all that is 
the work of man’s hands, are subject to the changes and 
chances of mortal being; but the spirit of truth is incor- 
ruptibie: it may be developed, illustrated, and applied: 
it can never die: it can never decline. No truth can 
perish: no truth can pass away. The flame is undying, 
though generations disappear. Wherever moral truth 
has started into being, humanity claims and guards the 
bequest. Each generation gathers together the imper- 
ishable children of the past, and increases them by the 
new sons of the light, alike radiant with immortality.” 

_ Bancroft’s remarks on Divine Providence in governing 

the world are at once clear and explicit. He says: 
“The principles that govern human affairs, extending 
like a path of light from century to century, become the 
highest demonstration of the superintending providence 
of God. Universal history does but seek to relate the 
sum of all God’s works of providence. The wheels of 
Providence are not turned about by blind chance, but 
they are full of eyes round about, and they are all guided 
by the Spirit of God.” “ Providence is the light of his- 
_ tory, and all history has a unity because God is in it. 


Historians. 191 


MERLE D’AUBIGNE. 


D’Aubigne, whose History of the Great Reformation 
of the Sixteenth Century has received the admiration of 
the whole Protestant world, thus speaks of the Agency 
of Providence: 

“Tn history, God should be acknowledged and pro- 
claimed. The history of the world should be set as the 
annals of the government of the Sovereign of the uni- 
verse. God is ever present on that vast theater where 
successive generations of men and nations struggle. The 
history of. the world, instead of presenting a confused 
chaos, appears as a majestic temple, in which the invisible 
hand of God himself is at work, and which rises to his 
glory above the rock of humanity. Shall we not recog- 
nize the hand of God in those grand manifestations, those 
great men, those mighty nations which arise and start as 
it were from the dust of the earth, and communicate a 
new form and destiny to the human race? Shall we not 
acknowledge him in those great heroes who spring from 
society at appointed epochs—who display a strength and 
an activity beyond the ordinary limits of humanity, and 
around whom, as around a superior and mysterious 
power, nations and individuals gladly gather? And do 
not those great revolutions which hurl kings from their 
thrones and precipitate whole nations to the dust,—do 
they not all declare aloud a God in history? Who, if not 
God? What a startling fact, that men, brought up amid 
the elevated ideas of Christianity, regard as mere super- 
stition that divine intervention in human affairs, which 
the very heathen have universally admitted !” 


192 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


FRANCOIS. P. G. GUIZOT. 


Several of the illustrious men of France have had a 
tendency to skepticism and infidelity. Many others, 
however, have had a profound reverence for the Christian 
religion. Amongst these was Guizot, the statesman. 
He was no less distinguished for greatness than goodness. 
In historical literature and criticism, he acquired im_ 
mense fame. For his various noble and benevolent labors, 
France conferred upon him some of her highest honors. 
In his will, he says: 

“T believe in God, and I adore him without attempt- 
ing to comprehend him. I see him present and acting, 
not only in the permanent regime of the universe and in 
the inner life of souls, but in the history of human socie- 
ties, and especially in the Old and New Testament monu- 
ments of the revelation and divine action, through the 
mediation and sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ, for the 
salvation of the human race. I bow down before the 
mysteries of the Bible and Gospel, and I keep myself 
aloof from the discussions and scientific solutions by 
which men have tried to explain them. I have full con- 
fidence that God permits me to call myself a Christian ; 
and IT am convinced that in the light into which I shall 
shortly enter, we siiall see distinctly the purely human 
origin and the vanity of most of our disputes here below 
on divine subjects.” 

Guizot, in his History of Civilization in Europe, 
speaking of the power which the Christian church ac- 
quired at the period of the downfall of the Roman 
empire, says: 

“It was of immense advantage to European civiliza- 


Historians. 193 


tion that a moral influence, a moral power—a power 
resting entirely upon moral convictions, upon moral 
opinions and sentiments—should have established itself 
in society, just at this period, when it seemed upon the 
point of being crushed by the overwhelming physical 
force which had taken possession of it. Had not the 
Christian church at this time existed, the whole world 
must have fallen a prey to mere brute force. The Chris- 
tian church alone possessed a moral power: it maintained 
and promulgated the idea of a precept, of a law superior 
to all human authority: it proclaimed that great truth 
which forms the only foundation of our hope for human- 
ity: namely, that there exists a law above all human 
law, which, by whatever name it may be called, whether 
reason, the law of God, or any other, is, in all times and 
in all places, the same law under different names.” 

Referring to the influence of religion in more recent 
times, Guizot says: 

“The Church has exercised a vast and important in- 
fluence upon the moral and intellectual order of EKurope— 
upon the notions, sentiments, and manners of society. 
This fact is evident: the intellectual and moral progress 
of Europe has been essentially theological. Look at its 
history from the fifth to the sixteenth century, and you 
will find throughout that theology has possessed and di- 
rected the human mind: every idea is impressed with 
theology: every question that has been started, whether 
philosophical, political, or historical, has been considered 
in a religious point of view. So powerful, indeed, has 
been the authority of the Church in matters of intellect, 
that even the mathematical and physical sciences have 


17 


194 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


been obliged to submit to its doctrines. The spirit of 
theology has been, as it were, the blood which has cir- 
culated in the veins of the European world down to the 
time of Bacon and Descartes. Bacon in England, and 
Descartes in France, were the first who carried the 
human mind beyond the pale of theology. 

‘‘We shall find the same fact hold if we travel through 
the regions of literature: the habits, the sentiments, the 
language of theology there show themselves at every step. 

“This influence, taken altogether, has been salutary. 
It not only kept up and ministered to the intellectual 
movement in Hurope, but the system of doctrines and 
precepts, by whose authority it stamped its impress upon 
that movement, was incalculably superior to any which 
the ancient world had known. 

“The influence of the Church, moreover, has given to 
the development of the human mind, in our modern 
world, an extent and variety which it never possessed 
elsewhere. In the Hast, intelligence was altogether re- 
ligious: among the Greeks, it was almost exclusively 
human: there human culture—humanity, properly so 
called, its nature and destiny—actually disappeared : 
here it was man alone, his passions, his feelings, his pres- 
ent interests, which occupied the field. In our world, 
the spirit of religion mixes itself with all, but excludes 
nothing. Human feelings, human interests, occupy a 
considerable space in every branch of our literature ; yet 
the religious character of man—that portion of his being 
which connects him with another world—appears at 
every turn in them all. Could modern intelligence 
assume a visible shape, we should recognize at once, in 
its mixed character, the finger of man and the finger of 


Historians. 195 


God. Thus the two great sources of human develop- 
ment, humanity and religion, have been open at the same 
time and flowed in plenteous streams.” 

Speaking of the period of the Reformation, Guizot 
says: 

‘Under whatever point of view we consider this era, 
we find its political, ecclesiastical, philosophical and lit- 
erary events, more numerous, varied, and important, than 
in any of the preceding ages. The activity of the human 
mind displayed itself in every way: in the relations of 
men with each other—in their relations with the govern- 
ing powers—in the relation of states, and in the intel- 
lectual labors of individuals. In short, it was the age of 
great men and of great things. Yet, among the great 
events of this period, the religious revolution which now 
engages our attention was the greatest. It was the lead- 
ing fact of the period—the fact which gives it its name, 
and determines its character. Among the many power- 
ful causes which have produced so many powerful effects, 
the Reformation was the most powerful: it was that to 
which all the others contributed—that which has modi- 
fied, or been modified by, all the rest.” 

“Tt was a vast effort made by the human mind to 
achieve its freedom: it was a new-born desire which it 
felt to think and judge, freely and independently, of facts 
and opinions which, till then, Europe received, or was 
considered bound to receive, from the hands of authority. 
It was a great endeavor to emancipate human reason; 
and to call things by their right names, it was an insur- 
rection of the human mind against the absolute power of 
the spiritual order. Such, in my opinion, was the true 
character and leading principle of the Reformation.” 


196 Testimonies in Favor of Ieligion and the Bible. 


‘‘ Wherever the Reformation penetrated—wherever it 
acted an important part, whether conqueror or con- 
quered, its general, leading, and constant result was an 
immense progress in mental activity and freedom—an 
immense step toward the emancipation of the human 
mind.” 

Guizot’s opinion of the self-supporting power of the 
Inspired Volume is most decided. He says: “It is the 
Bible, the Bible itself, which combats and triumphs most 
efficaciously in the war between incredulity and belief.” 


HENRY HALLAM, LL.D., D.C.L., F.R.S. 

The beneficial agency of Christianity, in preserving 
the literature of Greece and Rome, after their glory had 
declined, is candidly acknowledged by Hallam, in his 
History of the Middle Ages. After speaking, in his 
chapter on the state of society, of the want of eminent 
men in literature, he says: 

“Tf it be demanded by what cause it happened that a 
few sparks of ancient learning survived throughout this 
long winter, we can only ascribe their preservation to the 
establishment of Christianity. Religion alone made a 
bridge, as it were, across the chaos, and has linked the 
two periods of ancient and modern civilization. Without 
this connecting principle, Europe might, indeed, have 
awakened to intellectual pursuits, and the genius of 
recent times needed not to be invigorated by the imita- 
tion of antiquity. But the memory of Greece and Rome 
would have been feebly preserved by tradition, and the 
monuments of those nations might have excited, on the 
return of civilization, that vague sentiment of specula- 


Infidels. LOT 


tion and wonder with which men now contemplate Per- 
sepolis or the Pyramids.” 


WILLIAM EH. H. LECKY. 


Lecky, a distinguished writer of the nineteenth cen- 
tury, has written a work, entitled, the History of Kuro- 
pean Morals from Augustus to Charlemagne. Speaking 
of the character of Jesus Christ, and of the great influ- 
ence of his teaching and example on subsequent ages, he 
remarks: “It was reserved for Christianity to present 
to the world an ideal character, which, through all the 
changes of eighteen centuries, has filled the hearts of 
men with an impassioned love, and has shown itself 
capable of acting on all ages, nations, temperaments, 
conditions; and which has not only been the highest pat- 
tern of virtue, but the highest incentive to its practice.” 


INFIDELS. 


Men of strong minds and extensive erudition are more 
distinguished, as a general rule, for liberal views and 
candor of criticism, than men of weak intellects and 
limited information. This remark is peculiarly applica- 
ble to the opponents of the Christian religion. Some of 
them, possessing far more than an ordinary share of 
learning, have freely admitted that the moral teachings 
of the Bible are decidedly superior to all others, and that 
much of its other information is highly instructive and 
valuable. Such sentiments, evidently uttered in moments 
of calm reflection and unbiased feeling, are worthy of 


198 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


no small praise by all true Christians. Whatever skep- 
tical writers may have said when under the influence of 
passion or prejudice, is certainly to be viewed with dis- 
trust, if not repugnance. Some of the favorable opinions 
we are about to give; and it will be observed that they 
are exceedingly remarkable, not only for their candor, 
but likewise for their genuine truth. And the wonder 
is, that with such views, infidels do not fully receive the 
Christian system in all its divine excellence and force. 
In some instances, we are constrained to say, an unholy 
moral nature is the principal difficulty. As the Savior 
has remarked, ‘They love the darkness rather than the 
light, because their deeds are evil.’ If this were 
changed, the whole truth would at once be received. In 
regard to the senseless and wicked vituperation uttered 
by the unthinking and uninformed, it is simply unworthy 
of a moment’s consideration. It is sincerely hoped that 
the following opinions, so candidly given, and so forcibly 
expressed, will receive the profound attention their im- 
portance demands. 
ETHAN ALLEN. 

Ethan Allen, a brave officer during the Revolutionary 
War, was infidel in his views, and yet in his military 
movements, he acknowledged a Supreme Being. When 
attacking the fort at Ticonderoga, he demanded a sur- 
render, and was asked by what authority; to which he 
replied: “In the name of the Great Jehovah and the 
Continental Congress.” That he had full faith in hig 
infidel belief, seems doubtful, as the following incident 
shows: His wife was a pious woman, and taught her 
daughter the christian religion. This daughter sickened, 
and her father was sent for to hear her dying words. 


Infidels. 199 


“Father,” said she, “I am about to die: shall I believe 
the principles which you have taught me, or shall I be- 
lieve what my mother has taught me?” After waiting a 
few moments to calm his extreme agitation, he answered : 
“ Believe what your mother has taught you.” How true 
the sentiment of Dr. Young: 


“A death-bed’s a detecter of the heart.” 


HENRY ST. JOHN BOLINGBROKE. 


Lord Bolingbroke, a man of superior intellect and 
learning, and also of considerable influence as a politi- 
cian, but an open infidel, thus speaks of the Christian 
religion : 

‘No religion ever appeared in the world, whose natu- 
ral tendency was so much directed to promote the peace 
and happiness of mankind as christianity. No system 
can be more simple and plain than that of natural relig- 
ion, as it stands in the gospel. The system of religion 
which Christ published, and his evangelists recorded, is a 
complete system to all the purposes of religion, natural 
and revealed. Christianity, as it stands in the gospel, 
contains not only a complete, but a very plain system of 
religion. The gospel is in all cases one continued lesson 
of the strictest morality, of justice, of benevolence, and 
of universal charity. Supposing Christianity to be a 
human invention, it is the most amiable and successful 
invention that ever was imposed on mankind for their 
good.” | 

THOMAS CHUBB. 


Thomas Chubb, a Deist, whose writings are chiefly of a 
controversial character, while advocating the principles 


200 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


of natural religion, in contradistinction to revealed, pre- 
sents the following correct and most beautiful picture of 
the character of the Founder of our Holy Religion: 

“In Christ we have an example of a quiet and peace- 
able spirit, of a becoming modesty and sobriety, just, 
honest, upright, and sincere; and above all, of a most 
gracious and benevolent temper and behavior; one who 
did no wrong, no injury to any man; in whose mouth 
was no guile; who went about doing good, not only by 
his ministry, but also in curing all manner of diseases 
among the people. His life was a beautiful picture of 
human nature in its native purity and simplicity; and 
showed, at once, what excellent creatures men would be, 
when under the influence and power of that Gospel 
which he preached unto them.” 


DIDEROT. 


Diderot, a celebrated French encyclopedist and philo- 
sophical writer, was infidel in his views, but not consistent 
in his practice. It is related, that one day Mr. Beauzet, 
a member of the French Academy, went to see Diderot. 
He found him explaining a chapter of the Gospel to his 
daughter, quite seriously and with the concern of a true 
Christian parent. Mr. Beauzet expressed his surprise, to 
which Diderot replied: “T understand you, but in truth 
what better lesson could I give her?” 


EDWARD GIBBON. 

One of the most able and instructive productions of 
historic literature, is Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the 
Roman Empire. It is true, the author sometimes speaks 
disparagingly of the movements of religious organiza- 


Infidels. 201 


tions; and we freely confess that their movements, in 
various instances, have been discreditable to the Chris- 
tian cause; yet he has the honesty and candor to pay a 
high compliment to the excellence of its principles and 
the holiness of its influence, when working simply by its 
own inherent power. He says: 

‘“‘ While the Roman empire was invaded by open vio- 
lence, or underminded by slow decay, a pure and humble 
religion greatly insinuated itself into the minds of men, 
grew up in silence and sobriety, derived new vigor from 
opposition, and finally erected the banner of the cross on 
the ruins of the capital.” 

“The Christian religion is a religion that diffuses 
among the people a pure, benevolent, and universal sys- 
tem of ethics, adapted to every condition in life, and 
recommended as the will and reason of the Supreme 
Deity, and enforced by the sanction of eternal rewards 
and punishments.” 

Speaking of the conversion of some of the European 
nations to the Christian religion, Gibbon says: “ Truth 
and candor must acknowledge that the conversion of 
these nations imparted many temporal benefits both to 
the Old and New World, prevented the total extinction 
of letters, mitigated the fierceness of the times, sheltered 
the poor and defenseless, and preserved or revived the 
peace and order of civil society.” 

“Referring to the opinions of the ancient philosophers 
on the immortality of the soul, Gibbon closes with the 
remark: “Since the most sublime efforts of philosophy 
can extend no further than feebly to point out the desire, 
the hope, or at most the probability, of a future state, 
there is nothing except a Divine Revelation that can 


202 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


ascertain the existence and describe the condition of the 
invisible country which is destined to receive the souls 
of men after their separation from the body.” 


DAVID HUME. 


Of infidels there are two kinds: one fully confirmed 
in their disbelief of the Bible, and the other only skep- 
tical, or doubtful. To the latter belonged David Hume, 
the great historian of England. In some of his writings, 
his skepticism seems complete: he throws the shadow of 
doubt over every thing: he even doubts, if he does not 
wholly deny, the necessary connection between cause and 
effect. And yet, at times, he writes with great decision. 
In his Essay on the Middle Station of Life, he admits 
the existence of a divine Providence. He Says: 

“T can not forbear communicating a remark, which 
may appear somewhat extraordinary, namely, that it is 
wisely ordained by Providence that the middle station 
should be the most favorable to the improving our natu- 
ral abilities, since there is really more capacity requisite 
to perform the duties of that station, than is requisite to 
act in the higher spheres of life. There are more natural 
parts, and a stronger genius requisite to make a good 
lawyer or physician, than to make a great monarch.” 

In the same Essay, Hume makes a quotation from the 
Proverbs of Solomon, approving of its wise teaching. 
He observes: “Agur’s prayer is sufficiently noted—‘ Two 
things have I required of thee: deny me them not before 
I die: remove far from me vanity and lies: give me 
neither poverty nor riches: feed me with food conven- 
ient for me, lest I be full and deny thee, and say, who is 
the Lord? or lest I be poor and steal, and take the name 


Infidels. | 203 


of my God in vain.’ The middle station is here justly 
recommended, as affording the fullest security for virtue ; 
and I may add, that it gives opportunity for the most 
ample exercise of it, and furnishes employment for 
every good quality which we can be possibly possessed of.” 

Speaking of a future state of existence, Hume says: 
“Disbelief in futurity loosens, in a great measure, the 
ties of morality; and it may be supposed, for that 
reason, to be pernicious to the peace of civil society.” 

In his History of England, speaking of the Puritans, 
Hume states, that in Great Britain, ‘The precious spark 
of liberty had been kindled, and was preserved, by the 
Puritans alone; and it was to this sect,” “that the En- 
glish owe the whole freedom of their constitution.” 

Bishop Potter, in his Introduction to Lectures on the 
Evidences of Christianity, relates the following circum- 
stance respecting Hume: “ Walking with a friend (Prof. 
Adam Ferguson) on a clear and beautiful night, he sud- 
denly stopped, and looking up to the starry sky, ex- 
claimed: ‘Oh! Adam, can any one contemplate the 
wonders of that firmament and not believe that there is 
a God!’” 

THOMAS H. HUXLEY. 

Professor Huxley, an eminent scientist, and likewise a 
defender of evolution, makes some candid admissions in 
regard to the influences of religion. He says: 

“Some of the pleasantest recollections of my child- 
hood are connected with the voluntary study of an 
ancient Bible which belonged to my grandmother.” After 
referring to the histories and stories which most deeply 
affected him, he adds: “I enumerate, as they issue, the 
childish impressions which come crowding out of the 


204 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


pigeon-holes in my brain, in which they have lain almost 
undisturbed for forty years.” 

In one of his popular addresses on education, Huxley 
speaks in a very decided manner, in favor of religious 
instruction, remarking: ‘I have always been strongly in 
favor of secular education, in the sense of education 
_ without theology ; but I must confess I have been no less 

seriously perplexed to know by what practical measures 
the religious feeling, which is the essential basis of con- 
duct, was to be kept up, in the present utterly chaotic 
state of opinion on these matters, without the use of the 
Bible. The pagan moralists lack life and color; and 
even the noble stoic, Marcus Antoninus, is too high and 
refined for an ordinary child. Take the Bible as a whole; 
make the severest deductions which fair criticism can 
dictate, and there still remains in this old literature a vast 
residuum of moral beauty and grandeur. By the study 
of what other book could children be so much humanized ? 
If Bible reading is not accompanied by constraint and 
solemnity, I do not believe there is any thing in which 
children take more pleasure.” 

Most skeptical writers maintain that all nature is goyv- 
erned by fixed, immutable law, and ridicule the very idea 
of a miracle: Huxley, however, remarks: ‘“ Denying the 
possibility of miracles seems to me quite as unjustifiable 
as speculative Atheism.” 


LEGUINIA. 

The French skeptic, Leguinia, makes an important 
confession respecting the purity and excellence of the 
character of Jesus Christ, that is worthy of the highest 
commendation. He says: 


Infidels. 205 


“He called himself the Son of God. Who among 
mortals dare to say he was not? He always displayed 
virtue: he always spoke according to the dictates of 
reason: he always preached up wisdom: he sincerely 
loved all men, and wished to do good even to his perse- 
cutors: he developed all the principles of moral equality 
and of the purest patriotism: he met danger undismayed : 
he described the hard-heartedness of the rich: he at- 
tacked the pride of kings: he dared to resist, even in the 
face of tyrants: he despised glory and fortune: he was 
sober: he solaced the indigent: he taught the unfortu- 
nate how to suffer: he sustained weakness: he fortified 
decay: he consoled misfortune: he knew how to shed 
tears with those that wept: he taught men to subjugate 
their passions, to think, to reflect, to love one another, 
and to live happily together: he was hated by the power- 
ful, whom he offended by his teaching; and persecuted 
by the wicked, whom he unmasked: and he died under 
the indignation of the blind and deceived multitude for 
whose good he had always lived.” 


JOHN STUART MILL. 


One of the prominent writers of the nineteenth cen- 
tury, on political economy, logic, and kindred subjects, 
was John Stuart Mill. He was educated in infidelity by 
his father, and his early teachings influenced his whole 
life. He tells us that at one period of his early man- 
hood, there came over him a deep gloom and conscious- 
ness that his acts and his attainments fell far short of his 
ideal. He had enjoyed every advantage of study, was 
in no financial trouble, had met no disappointments, but 
something was wanting. The Christian believer will 


206 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


have no hesitation in telling what that something want- 
ing was. After a time, it is stated, he recovered his 
composure, but his longings were only suppressed—not 
gratified. After his death, three essays on religious 
subjects were published; whose titles were, Nature, The 
Utility of Religion, and Theism. These essays show 
that while he believed in the possibility of the Divine 
Existence, he thought it could not be fully proved. He 
admitted, however, that “so long as human life is in- 
sufficient to satisfy human aspirations, there will be a 
craving for higher things, which finds the most obvious 
satisfaction in religion.” His opinion of the Author of 
Christianity is certainly a remarkable concession. It is 
as follows: 

‘The most valuable part of the effect on the character 
which Christianity has produced, by holding up in a 
Divine person a standard of excellence, and a model for 
imitation, is available even to the absolute unbeliever, 
and can never more be lost to humanity. For it is 
Christ, rather than God, whom Christianity has held up 
to believers as the pattern of perfection to humanity. It 
is the God incarnate, more than the God of the Jews, or 
of Nature, who, being idealized, has taken so great and 
salutary a hold on the modern mind. And whatever else 
may be taken from us by rational criticism, Christ is still 
left—a unique figure, not more unlike all his precursors 
than all his followers, even those who had the direct 
benefit of his personal teaching. It is of no use to say 
that Christ, as exhibited in the Gospels, is not historical, 
and that we know not how much of what is admirable 
has been superadded by the tradition of his followers.” 
‘‘Who among his disciples, or among their proselytes, 


Infidels. 207 


was capable of inventing the sayings ascribed to Jesus, 
or of imagining the life and character revealed in the 
Gospels? Cartainly not the fishermen of Galilee: as 
certainly not St. Paul, whose character and idiosyncrasies 
were of a totally different sort: still less the early 
Christian writers, in whom nothing is more evident than 
that the good which was in them was all derived, as they 
always professed that it was derived, from the higher 
source.” 

“About the life and sayings of Jesus Christ there is a 
stamp of personal originality, combined with profundity 
of insight, which, if we abandon the idle expectation of 
finding scientific precision where something very differ- 
ent was aimed at, must place the Prophet of Nazareth, 
even in the estimation of those who have no belief in his 
inspiration, in the very first rank of the men of sublime 
genius of whom our species can boast. When this pre- 
eminent genius is combined with the qualities of probably 
the greatest moral reformer, and martyr to that mission, 
who ever existed upon earth, religion can not be said to 
have made a bad choice in fixing on this man as the ideal 
representative and guide of humanity; nor even now 
would it be easy, even for an unbeliever, to find a better 
translation of the rule of virtue from the abstract into 
the concrete, than to endeavor so to live that Christ 
would approve our life. When to this we add, that, to 
the conception of the rational skeptic, it remains a possi- 
bility that Christ actually was what He supposed himself 
to be,’ “a man charged with a special, express, and 
unique commission from God to lead mankind to truth 
and virtue, we may well conclude that the influences of 
religion on the character, which will remain after rational 


208 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


criticism has done its utmost against the evidences of 
religion, are well worth preserving, and that what they 
lack in direct strength, as compared with those of a 
firmer belief, is more than compensated by the greater 
truth and rectitude of the morality they sanction.” 


THOMAS PAINE. 


One of the most unfair and bitter opponents of the 
Christian religion was Thomas Paine. His Age of Reason 
will ever be regarded by men of intelligence and candor, 
as a discreditable, not to say malignant, production. 
That he laid down in his political writings some excellent 
maxims in regard to human rights, all will readily allow; 
and that he also uttered, when not under the influence of 
prejudice and passion, some important truths in regard 
to the Bible and Christianity, is shown by various ad- 
missions in his own writings. His reasoning in regard 
to the existence of a Supreme Being is certainly remark- 
able and striking. He says: 

‘The only idea man can affix to the name of God, is 
that of a first cause, the cause of all things. And in- 
comprehensibly difficult as it is for man to conceive what 
a first cause is, he arrives at the belief of it, from the 
tenfold greater difficulty of disbelieving it. It is diffi- 
cult beyond descriptidn to conceive that space can have 
no end; but it is more difficult to conceive an end. It 
is difficult beyond the power of man to conceive an eter- 
nal duration of what we call time; but it is more im- 
possible to conceive a time when there shall be no time. 
In like manner of reasoning every thing we behold 
carries in itself the internal evidence that it did not 
make itself. Every man isan evidence to himself that 


Infidels. 209 


he did not make himself; neither could his father, nor 
his grandfather, nor any of his race; neither could any 
tree, plant, or animal make itself: and it is the convic- 
tion, arising from this evidence, that carries us on, as it 
were, by necessity, to the belief of a First Cause eter- 
nally existing, of a nature totally different from any ma- 
terial existence we know of, and by the power of which 
all things exist; and this first cause man calls God.” 

To this passage, Mr. Paine adds Addison’s versifica- 
tion of a part of the nineteenth Psalm: 


‘The spacious firmament on high, 
With all the blue, ethereal sky, 
And spangled heavens, a shining frame, 
Their great Original proclaim. 
The unwearied sun, from day to day, 
Does his Creator’s power display 
And publishes to every land 
The work of an Almighty hand. 


‘Soon as the evening shades preyail, 
The moon takes up the wondrous tale, 
And nightly to the listening earth 
Repeats the story of her birth: 
While all the stars that round her burn, 
And all the planets in their turn, 
Confirm the tidings as they roll, 
And spread the truth from pole to pole. 


“What, though, in solemn silence, all 
Move round this dark, terrestrial ball! 
What, though no real voice or sound 
Amid their radiant orbs be found 
In reason’s ear they all rejoice, 

And utter forth a glorious voice, 
Forever singing as they shine, 
The Hand that made us is divine!” 


18 


210 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


Mr. Paine alsosays: ‘The belief of a God, so far from 
having any thing of a mystery in it, is of all beliefs the 
most easy ; because it arises to us out of necessity.” 

Mr. Paine further remarks: “There is one true the- 
ology, and one unadulterated revelation of God, namely, 
the Universe ;”’ and even puts these words into the mouth 
of his deity: “I have made an earth for man to dwell 
upon, and I have rendered the starry heavens visible to 
teach him science and the arts. He can now provide 
for his own comfort, and learn from my munificence to 
all, to be kind to each other.” 

In his Private Thoughts on a Future State, Mr. Paine 
says: ‘My opinion is, that those whose lives have been 
spent in doing good, and endeavoring to make their 
fellow-mortals happy, for this is the only way in which we 
can serve God, will be happy hereafter ; and that the very 
wicked will meet with some punishment. This is my 
Opinion. It is consistent with my idea of God’s justice, 
and with the reason that God has given me.” 

““T have said in the first part of my Age of Reason 
that ‘I hope for happiness after this life.’ This hope is 
comfortable to me, and I presume not to go beyond the 
comfortable idea of hope, with respect to a future state.” 
“T consider myself in the hands of my Creator, and that. 
he will dispose of me after this life, consistently with his 
justice and goodness. I leave all these matters to him as 
my Creator and friend.” 

In his Age of Reason, speaking of Jesus Christ, he 
savs: “‘ He called men to the practice of moral virtues 
and the belief of one God. ‘The great trait in his char- 
acter is philanthropy.” 

He also says: “ He was a virtuous and amiable man. 


Infidels. 211 


The morality that he preached and practiced was of the 
most benevolent kind; and though similar systems of - 
morality had been preached by Confucius and by some of 
the Greek philosophers many ages before, by the Quakers 
since, and by many good men in all ages, it has not been 
exceeded by any.” Those systems were in some respects 
similar, but in others decidedly inferior. As to the 
Quakers, they got theirs from the Bible. 

In another part of his writings, speaking of the Book 
of Job, he says: “As a composition, it is sublime, beau- 
tiful, and scientific: full of sentiment, and abounding in 
ad metaphorical description. As a drama, it 1s regu- 
lar.” “In the last act, where the Almighty is introduced 
as speaking from the whirlwind, to decide the controversy 
between Job and his friends, it . an idea as grand as 
poetical imagination can conceive.’ 


JOSEPH E. RENAN. 


One of the most remarkable works of the nineteenth 
century is The Life of Jesus, by Renan, a distinguished | 
French writer. The author is held in great esteem, being 
a member of the Academy of Sciences, an institution 
composed of forty of the most learned men of the em- 
pire. The work is remarkable for its candor, considering 
that the author does not hold to the orthodox doctrines of 
Christianity. He endeavors to account for the acts of the 
Savior on natural principles, which, of course, is a great 
defect of the work. Still it is a source of rejoicing that 
infidelity with modern authors is losing much of its viru- 
lence, and treating Christianity with the respect to which 
it is justly entitled. The author remarks: 

“The capital event of the history of the world is the 


212 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


revolution by which the noblest portions of humanity 
passed from the ancient religions, comprised under the 
vague name of paganism, to a religion founded upon the 
divine unity, the trinity, the incarnation of the Son of 
God. This conversion required nearly a thousand years 
for its accomplishment. The new religion occupied at 
least three hundred years in its formation alone. But 
the origin of the revolution with which we have to do, is 
an event which occurred during the reigns of Augustus 
and Tiberius. Then lived a superior person who by his 
bold initiative, and by the love which he inspired, created 
the object and fixed the starting-point of the future faith 
of humanity.” 

Speaking more definitely of this ; superior person, 
Renan says: “Jesus was more than the reformer of a 
superannuated religion: he was the creator of the eternal 
religion of humanity.” 

Of the perfect adaptation of this eternal religion of 
humanity to men of all conditions in life, Renan says: 
“Jesus can not belong exclusively to those who call 
themselves his disciples. He is the common honor of all 
who bear a human heart: His glory consists, not in 
being banished from history: we render him a truer wor- 
ship by showing that all history is incomprehensible 
without him.” 

Referring to the originality of Jesus in his conception 
of God as a father—as our ‘“ Father in heaven,’ Renan 
observes : 

“This is his grand act of orginality: in this he owes 
nothing to his race. Neither Jew nor Musselman has 
ever understood this delightful theory of love. The God 
of Jesus is no fatal master, who kills us when he pleases, 


Infidels. - B13 


condemns us when he pleases, saves us when he pleases. 
The God of Jesus is our Father. He is the God of Hu- 
manity.” 

Referring to the words spoken by Jesus to the woman 
of Samaria, “The hour cometh when ye shall worship 
neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, but when 
the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit 
and in truth,’ Renan says: 

‘On the day when he pronounced these words, he was 
indeed the Son of God. He, for the first time, gave 
utterance to the idea upon which shall rest the edifice of 
the everlasting religion. He founded the pure worship, 
of no age, of no clime, which shall be that of all lofty 
souls to the end of time. Not only was his religion, 
that day, the benign religion of humanity, but it was the 
absolute religion; and if other planets have inhabitants 
endowed with reason and morality, their religion can not 
be different from that which Jesus proclaimed at Jacob’s 
well. Man has not been able to abide by this worship : 
we attain the ideal only for a moment. The words of 
Jesus were a gleam in thick night: it has taken eighteen 
hundred years for the eyes of humanity (what do I say! 
of an infinitely small portion of humanity) to learn to 
abide it. But the gleam shall become the full day; and 
after passing through all the circles of error, humanity 
will return to these words, as to the immortal expression 
of its faith and its hope.” 

Again Renan says: “Christianity has become almost 
synonymous with religion. Apart from the great and good 
Christian tradition we should know nothing of religion. 
It would be mere barrenness. Jesus has founded relig- 
ion in humanity, as Socrates has founded it in philoso- 


214 =Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


phy, and Aristotle in science. ‘There had been philosophy 
before Socrates, and science before Aristotle. Since 
Socrates and Aristotle, philosophy and science have 
made immense progress; but all have been built upon 
the foundations which they laid. In the same manner, 
before Jesus, religious thought had passed through many 
revolutions. Since Jesus, it has made great conquest; 
but we have not left behind, we shall never leave behind, 
the essential idea which Jesus created. He has fixed 
forever the idea of pure worship. In this sense, his 
religion is without limits. The Church has had its 
epochs, its phases, its symbols, which have been, or will 
be, but temporary; but Jesus has founded absolute re- 
ligion, excluding nothing, defining nothing, save only the 
sentiment.” 

Speaking of the Sermon on the Mount, Renan says: 
“Tt is the highest creation which ever proceeded from 
the human conscience, the most beautiful code of the 
perfect life ever traced by moralist.” 

The essence of morality as inculcated and exemplified 
by Jesus Christ, in his great mission on earth, is pre- 
sented by Renan, in language at once clear and forcible. 
He says: 

‘“‘In morality, as in art, words are nothing, deeds are 
every thing. The idea which is concealed beneath a 
picture of Raphael is a small thing: it is the picture 
alone that counts. Likewise, in morality, truth becomes 
of value only, if it pass to the condition of feeling, and 
it attains all its preciousness only when it is realized in 
the world as a fact. Men of indifferent morals have 
written very good maxims. Men very virtuous, also, 
have done nothing to continue the tradition of their 


Infidels. 215 


virtue in the world. The palm belongs to him who has 
been mighty in word and in work, who has felt the truth, 
and, at the price of his blood, has made it triumph. 
Jesus, from this double point of view, is without equal : 
his glory remains complete, and will be renewed forever.” 

Renan has no idea that the efforts of modern socialists 
to reform society will ever be successful, and for one 
simple reason—they are founded upon what he terms 
“ nolitical and economic measures,” instead of the benign 
principles of the World’s great, infallible Teacher. 
He says: 

“The dreams of the ideal organization of society, 
which have so close analogy with the aspirations of the 
primitive Christian sects, are in one sense only the ex- 
pansion of the same idea, one of the branches of that 
immense tree in which germinates every thought_of the 
future, and of which the ‘kingdom of God’ will be the 
trunk and root forever. All the social revolutions of | 
humanity will be engrafted upon this stock. But in- 
fected with a gross materialism, aspiring to the impossi- 
ble—to found universal happiness upon political and 
economic measures, the ‘ socialistic’ attempts of our time 
will yet be unfruitful, until they take for their rule the 
true spirit of Jesus, absolute idealism, this principle that 
in order to possess the earth it is necessary to re- 
nounce it.” . 

After describing the crucifixion of the Savior, Renan 
utters the following sublime apostrophe: 

‘“¢ Repose now in thy glory, noble Founder! Thy work 
is finished : thy divinity is established. Fear no more to 
see the edifice of thy labors fall by any fault. Hence- 
forth, beyond the reach of frailty, thou shalt witness from 


216 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


the heights of divine peace, the infinite results of thy 
acts. At the price of a few hours of suffering, which did 
not even reach thy grand soul, thou hast bought the most 
complete immortality. For thousands of years, the 
world will depend on thee! Banner of our contests! 
thou shalt be the standard about which the hottest battle 
will be given. A thousand times more alive, a thousand 
times more beloved, since thy death than during thy 
passage here below, thou shalt become the corner-stone 
of humanity so entirely, that to tear thy name from this 
world would be to.rend it to its foundations. Between 
thee and God, there will no longer be any distinction. 
Complete conqueror of death! take possession of thy 
kingdom, whither shall follow thee, by the royal road 
which thou hast traced, ages of worshipers.” 


JEAN J. ROUSSEAU. 


One of the most remarkable geniuses of the eighteenth 
century was Rousseau, a French writer of great celebrity. 
Many of his views on various subjects were at variance 
with the established opinions of the philosophers of his 
day: yet amid all his peculiarities, and even his skepti- 
cism, he gave utterance to sublime eulogies on the chris- 
tian religion, its glorious doctrines, and the elevated 
character and inimitable teachings of its divine author. 
Referring to the beneficial results that would follow the 
universal adoption of the christian religion, he makes the 
following candid admission : 

“Tf all men were perfect Christians, individuals would 
do their duty: the people would be obedient to the laws: 
governors would be just, and magistrates incorrupt: the 


Infidels. - ONT 


soldiers would despise death; and there would be neither 
vanity nor luxury in such a state.” 

Speaking of a state of future existence, and a super- 
intending Providence, Rousseau remarks: ‘“ Not all the 
subtilties of metaphysics can make me doubt for a mo- 
ment of the immortality of the soul, and of a beneficent 
Providence. I feel it; I believe it; I desire it; I hope 
it; and will defend it to my last breath.” 

In his Treatise on Education, is the following most 
eloquent passage, equaling, if not surpassing, any thing 
any divine ever wrote : 

“I will confess to you that the majesty of the Scrip- 
tures strikes me with admiration, as the purity of the 
Gospel hath its influence on my heart. Peruse the works 
of our philosophers, with all their pomp of diction, how 
mean, how contemptible are they, compared with the 
Scripture! Is it possible that a book, at once so simple 
and sublime, should be merely the work of man? Is it 
possible that the sacred personage whose history it con- 
tains, should be himself a mere man? Do we find that 
he assumed the tone of an enthusiast, or ambitious sec- 
tary? What sweetness, what purity in his manner! 
What an affecting gracefulness in his delivery! What 
sublimity in his maxims! What profound wisdom in his 
discourses ! What presence of mind, what sagacity, 
what truth in his replies! How great the command of 
his passions! Where is the man, where the philosopher, 
who could so live, and so die, without weakness and with- 
out ostentation? When Plato described his imaginary 
good man, loaded with all the shame of guilt, yet merit- 
ing the highest rewards of virtue, he described exactly 

19 


218 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


the character of Jesus Christ: the resemblance was so 
striking, that all the Fathers perceived it. What prepos- 
session, what blindness must it be, to compare the son of 
Sophroniscus to the Son of Mary? What an infinite dis- 
proportion there is between them! Socrates dying with- 
out pain or ignominy easily supported his character to 
the last; aud if his death, however easy, had not crowned 
his life, it might have been doubted whether Socrates, 
with all his wisdom, was any thing more than a vain soph- 
ist. He invented, it is said, the theory of morals. Others, 
however, had before put them in practice: he had only te 
say, therefore, what they had done, and to reduce their 
examples to precepts. Aristides had been just before 
Socrates defined justice: Leonidas had given up his life 
for his country before Socrates declared patriotism to be 
a duty: the Spartans were a sober people before Socrates 
recommended sobriety : before he had even defined virtue, 
Greece abounded in virtuous men. But where could 
Jesus learn, among his competitors, that pure and sub- 
lime morality, of which he only hath given us both pre- 
cept and example? The greatest wisdom was made 
known amongst the most bigoted fanaticism, and the 
simplicity of the most heroic virtue crowned one of the 
humblest of the people. The death of Socrates peaceably 
philosophizing with’ his friends, appears the most agree- 
able that could be wished for: that of Jesus, expiring in 
the midst of agonizing pains, abused, insulted, and ac- 
cused by a whole nation, is the most horrible that could 
be feared. Socrates, in receiving the cup of poison, 
blessed the weeping executioner who administered it; 
but Jesus, in the midst of excruciating torments, prayed 
for his merciless tormentors. Yes, if the life and death 


Infidels Claimed as Such. 219 


of Socrates were those of a sage, the life and death of 
Jesus were those of a God. 

“Shall we suppose the evangelic history a mere fic- 
tion? Indeed it bears not the mark of fiction: on the 
contrary, the history of Socrates, which nobody pre- 
sumes to doubt, is not so well attested as that of Jesus 
Christ. Such a supposition, in fact, only shifts the diffi- 
culty, without obviating it. It is more inconceivable that 
a number of persons should agree to write such a his- 
tory, than that one only should furnish the subject of it. 
The Jewish authors were incapable of the diction and of 
the morality contained in the Gospel, the marks of whose 
truth are so striking and inimitable, that the inventor 
would be a more astonishing character than the hero.” 


INFIDELS CLAIMED AS SUCH. 


Krrorists in presenting their theories and systems to 
the public, invariably manifest supreme pleasure in claim- 
ing the sanction and support of illustrious men in favor 
of their views; and, as all know, no class of persons do 
this more frequently than the bold advocates of infidelity. 
If, at any time, a distinguished individual has announced 
a scientific truth that seemed at variance with the teach- 
ings of the Bible, or expressed a want of comprehension 
of some of its deep mysteries, he has at once been set 
down as a disbeliever, and his name has been placed side 
by side with the most virulent blasphemers and reckless 
ridiculers of holy things; while, at the same time, his 
freely-expressed opinions in regard to the beauties of the 


220 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


Bible, or the excellence of its moral teachings, have been ° 
entirely ignored. It is certainly the duty of the defend- 
ers of Christianity to rescue the names of such distin- 
guished individuals from the disgrace that has thus been 
thrown around them, and to present them to the public in 
their just and proper light. Such individuals may not 
have been decided believers, but, having spoken respect- 
fully and even eulogistically of the Christian religion, it 
is, to say the least, but right that their friendly utter- 
ances should be generally known. 


GEORGE G. BYRON. 


As a genius of wonderful powers of imagination, and a 
writer of great sublimity and force of expression, Lord 
Byron was almost without a rival. His poetry, though 
sadly marred with moral blemishes, will long be admired 
for its various excellences. Had his heart been as noble 
as his head, he would have been the Sirius of the poetical 
firmament, constantly shining with surpassing splendor, 
and not like one of those variable stars that sometimes 
appear of the first magnitude, and then of the fourth or 
fifth. Notwithstanding his numerous defects, however, 
he frequently speaks of the Bible and religion with be- 
coming reverence and respect. In a letter to a clergy- 
man, he remarks: _ 

“The thought of living eternally—of again reviving, 
is a great pleasure. Christianity is the purest and most 
liberal religion in the world.” “I admire the liberal and 
‘truly charitable principles which Christ has laid down.” 
‘“‘Indisputably the firm believers in the Gospel have a 
great advantage over all others, for this simple reason, 
that, if true, they will have their reward hereafter; and 


Infidels Claimed as Such, 221 


if there be no hereafter, they can be but with the infidel 
in his eternal sleep, having had the assistance of an 
exalted hope through life, without subsequent disap- 
pointment, since (at the worst of them) ‘ out of nothing, 
nothing can arise, not even sorrow. ” 

In one of his poems, Byron has the following array of 
illustrious names : 

“Great Locke, and greater Bacon, 
Great Socrates, and thou Diviner Still, 
Whose lot it is by man to be mistaken.” 

In an explanatory note, he remarks: ‘As it is neces- 
sary in these times to avoid ambiguity, I say, that I 
mean, by Diviner Still, Christ. If ever God was man— 
or man God, he was both. I never arraigned his creed, 
but the use—or abuse—made of it.” 

Writing from the continent to his London publisher, 
Mr. Murray, for a supply of books, he names, among 
others, the Sacred Volume, saying: ‘A common Bible, 
of good legible print, (bound in russia.) Ihave one; but 
as it was the last gift of my sister, (whom I shall prob- 
ably never see again,) I can only use it carefully, and 
less frequently, because I like to keep’ it in good order. 
Don’t forget this, for I am a great reader and admirer 
of those books, and had read them through and through 
before I was eight years old,—that is to say, the Old 
Testament, for the New struck me as a task, but the 
other as a pleasure. I speak as a boy from the recol- 
lected impression of that period at Aberdeen in 1796.” 

Though Byron’s life was in a high degree reprehensi- 
ble, yet he often spoke in the most decided terms of the 
immense importance of virtuous principles. Referring 
to the writings of Pope, he says: 


222 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


“In my mind, the highest of all poetry is ethical 
poetry, as the highest of all earthly objects must be 
moral truth.” ‘ What made Socrates the greatest of 
men? His moral truth—his ethics. What proved Jesus 
Christ the Son of God hardly less than his miracles? 
His moral precepts. And if ethics have made a philoso- 
pher the first of men, and have not been disdained as an 
adjunct to his gospel by the Deity himself, are we to be 
told that ethical poetry, or didactic poetry, or by what- 
ever name you term it, whose object is to make men 
better and wiser, is not the very first order of poetry?” 
“He who can reconcile poetry with truth and wisdom, is 
the only true poet in its real sense.” What a benefit to 
the world it would have been, if all Byron’s poetry had 
been of this elevated character. 

Byron had doubts in regard to the immortality of the 
soul. At the age of twenty-five, he frankly expressed 
those doubts, and gave the following.reason: “It was 
the comparative insignificance of ourselves and our world, 
when placed in comparison with the mighty whole, of 
which it is an atom, that first led me to imagine that our 
pretensions to eternity might be overrated.” 

At the age of thirty-two, only two years before his 
death, he says: “There is nothing against the immor- 
tality of the soul in ‘Cain,’ that I recollect. I hold no 
such opinions.” 

In his Detached Thoughts, he remarks: 

“Of the immortality of the soul, it appears to me that 
there can be little doubt, if we attend for a moment to 
the action of mind: it is in perpetual activity. I used 
to doubt of it, but reflection has taught me better. It 
acts also so very independent of the body—in dreams, 


Infidels Claimed as Such. 223 


for instance; incoherently and madly, I grant you, but 
still it is mind, and much more mind than when we are 
awake. Now that this should not act separately, as well 
as jointly, who can pronounce? The Stoics, Epictetus 
and Marcus Aurelius, call the present state, ‘a soul which 
drags a carcass, —a heavy chain to be sure, but all chains 
being material may be shaken off. How far our future 
life will be individual, or, rather, how far it will at all re- 
semble our present existeace, is another question; but that 
the mind is eternal seems as reasonable as that the body 
is not so. Of course, I here venture upon the question 
without recurring to Revelation, which, however, is at 
least as rational a solution of it as any other.” 

At times, Byron’s skepticism would give way, and he 
would write with all the faith and fervor of a true Chris- 
tian. How beautiful and devout are his sentiments writ- 
ten on the death of a young lady, his cousin, who, as 
he says, was very dear to him: 


“Oh! could the King of Terrors pity feel, 
Or Heaven reverse the dread decrees of fate! 
Not here the mourner would his grief reveal, 
Not here the muse her virtues would relate. 


“ But wherefore weep? Her matchlesss spirit soar: 
Beyond where splendid shines the orb of day ; 
And weeping angels lead her to those bowers 
Where endless pleasures virtue’s deeds repay. 


“ And shall presumptuous mortals Heaven arraign, 
And madly Godlike Providence accuse? 
Ah! no, far fly from me attempts so vain: 
I'll ne’er submission to my God refuse.” 


224 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


CHARLES DARWIN, F.R.S. 


Few individuals have made more sensation in the 
scintific world than Mr. Darwin, author of The Origin 
of Species. His theory of evolution has been adopted 
by some who have wholly rejected the idea of any Divine 
Agency in the creation of the universe. He himself, 
however, was of a different opinion. At the conclusion 
of his work, he says: 

“Authors of the highest eminence seem to be fully 
satisfied with the view that each species has been inde- 
pendently created. To my mind it accords better with 
what we know of the laws impressed on matter by the 
Creator, that the production and extinction of the past 
and present inhabitants of the world should have been 
due to secondary causes, like those determining the birth 
and death of the individual.” ‘There is grandeur in 
this view of life, with its several powers, having been 
originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms, or 
into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling 
on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple 
a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most won- 
derful have been, and are being evolved.” 


RALPH W. EMERSON, LL.D. 

Kmerson, whose writings are regarded as transcen- 
dental in their character, pays the following just tribute 
to the influence of religion on the human mind: 

“Itis the property of the religious spirit to be the 
most refining of all influences. No external advantages, 
no culture of the tastes, no habit of command, no asso- 
ciation with the elegant, or even depth of affection, can 


Infidels Converted. Yapas 


bestow that delicacy and that grandeur of bearing which 
belong only to the mind accustomed to celestial con- 
versation: all else is but gilt and cosmetic, beside this, 
as expressed in every look and gesture.” 

“Only by the supernatural is a man strong—only by 
confiding in the Divinity which stirs within us. Nothing 
is so weak as an egotist—nothing is mightier than we, 
when we are vehicles of a truth before which the state 
and the individual are alike ephemeral.” 

“Men of God have always, from time to time, walked 
among men, and made their commission felt in the heart 
and soul of the commonest hearer.” 

What a world of meaning is contained in the following 
remark made by Emerson: ‘We live in a new and ex- 
ceptional age. America is another name for opportunity. 
Our whole history appears like a last effort of the Divine 
Providence in behalf of the human race.” 


INFIDELS CONVERTED. 


Dr. Young, the profound moral philosopher and sublime 
Christian poet, has said: 

“ An honest Deist, where the Gospel shines, 
Matured to nobler, in the Christian ends.” 

That is, where an honest Deist allows the full light of 
the Gospel to shine on his mind, he must finally yield to 
the overwhelming evidences in favor of its divine origin, 
and embrace it in all the fullness of its celestial power 
and glory. The truth of this assertion has been demon- 
strated in thousands of instances. Men in the public 


226 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


and private walks of life—statesmen, philosophers and 
poets, as well as persons in humble stations, having 
imbibed infidel principles under improper influences, 
have had their attention directed to the evidences of 
Christianity, or have been impressed with its beautiful 
operation on individuals, families, and communities, and 
have, as a result, undergone a complete change in their 
views and feelings. The examples we are about to pre- 
sent are all of a striking character, and can not fail to 
make a favorable impression in regard to the truth and 
convicting power of the Gospel of Christ. 


JOSEPH BARKER. 


During the anti-slavery agitation in the United States 
of America, there came from England a clergyman named 
the Rev. Joseph Barker. From the Strange course pur- 
sued by some of the churches, and other causes, he was 
led into skepticism. Subsequently he saw into his error, 
and returned to his early faith. The following is his 
honest confession : 

‘Men who have strayed into skepticism are continually 
coming back to the Bible, and accepting it again as their 
teacher, their guide, and their comforter. I am myself 
an instance of this. Carried away as by a tempest, from 
my early faith, [ wandered for years in the dreary regions 
of doubt and unbelief. I looked for light, and beheld 
darkness. I sought rest, and found disquietude. And 
the farther I went the worse I fared; and the longer I 
remained in those dismal shades, the more wretched I 
became. I found myself at length face to face with 
utter darkness and eternal death. God, in his mercy, 
rescued me from that awful state, and brought me 


Infidels Converted. Py Al; 


back to Christ. And here I am, happy in the 
light of his truth, and in the assurance of his 
love. I prize the Bible, and love Christ and Chris- 
tianity more than ever; and I am more happy in the 
work of a minister than ever I was in my life. And my 
ability to maintain the claims of Christ and Christianity 
and the Bible to the love and reverence and gratitude of 
mankind is greater than ever. And my hatred and 
horror of infidelity are greater than ever. I know it to 
be the extreme of madness and misery—the utter degra- 
dation and ruin of man’s soul.” 


LOUIS E. M. BAUTAIN. 


Louis E. M. Bautain, a French philosopher and theolo- 
gian, at the early age of twenty became professor of 
philosophy in the College of Strasbourg. His mind 
having a religious tendency, and not finding satisfaction 
in philosophy alone, he turned his attention to religion. 
In 1848, he attempted to give a religious direction to the 
revolution. He filled various important offices, and pub- 
lished a number of works. He finally was selected as 
one of the professors of the Theological Faculty of Paris, 
and was a popular preacher. He thus gives an account 
of his conversion to the Christian religion. 

“A single book has saved me; but that book is not of 
human origin. Long had I despised it; long had I 
deemed it a class-book for the credulous and ignorant; 
until, having investigated the gospel of Christ, with an 
ardent desire to ascertain its truth or falsity, its pages 
proffered to my inquiries the sublimest knowledge of 
man and nature, and the simplest and, at the same time, 
the most exalted system of moral ethics. Faith, hope, 


228 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


and charity were enkindled in my bosom; and every 
advancing step strengthened me in the conviction, that 
the morals of this Book are superior to human morals, 
as its oracles are superior to human opinions.” 


FRANCOIS AUGUSTE DE CHATEAUBRIAND. 


Chateaubriand, a French author of great celebrity, 
was in early life, skeptical, as is shown in a work that 
he published; but the second, sober thought came, and 
he renounced his infidelity forever. He thus speaks of 
the tameness of pretended revelations, and the wonder- 
ful originality and power of the Inspired Writings, and 
their adaptation to universal humanity : 

“The productions most foreign to our manners, the 
sacred books of the infidel nations, the Zendavesta of the 
Parsees, the Vidan of the Brahmins, the Koran of the 
Turks, the Edda of the Scandinavians, the Sancrit poems, 
the maxims of Confucius, excite in us no surprise: we find 
in all these works the ordinary chain of human ideas: they 
have all some resemblance to each other, both in tone 
and in ideas. The Bible alone is like none of them: it 
is a monument detached from all the others. Explain it 
to a Tartar, to a Caffre, to an American savage; put it 
into the hands of a bonze or a dervise; they will all be 
equally astonished by it: a fact which borders on the 
miraculous. ‘Twenty authors, living at periods very dis- 
tant from one another, composed the sacred books; and 
though they are written in twenty different styles, yet 
these styles, equally inimitable, are not to be met within 
any other performance. The New Testament, so differ- 
ent in its spirit from the Old, nevertheless partakes with 
the latter of this astonishing originality.” 


\ 


Infidels Converied. 229 


ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 


No country has ever been favored with an abler states- 
man or purer patrict than the United States in the person 
of General Alexander Hamilton. Larly in life he gave 
evidence of remarkable talents; and by his sound under- 
standing, comprehensive views, and faithful devotion to 
public interests, gained the confidence of General Wash- 
ington, insomuch that during Washington’s administra- 
tion, he became Secretary of the Treasury, and, by his 
skill, placed the finances of the young republic on a perma- 
nent basis. His efforts for a stable, efficient gevernment, 
and his able advocacy of the constitution, will ever be 
held in high admiration. At one time, he was skeptical 
in regard to the Christian religion, but like an honest 
man, he gave the subject a full investigation, and became 
a decided believer in its truth. He gives the following 
candid account of his conversion. 

‘Not many months ago, I was doubtful of the truths 
of Christianity; but some circumstances turned my 
thoughts to the investigation of the subject, and I now 
think differently. I had been in company with some 
friends of a similar sentiment in New York. I had in-’ 
dulged in remarks much to the disadvantage of Chris- 
tians, and the disparagement of their religion. I had 
gone further than ever before I had done in this way. 
Coming home, I stood, late at night, on the door steps, 
waiting for my servant. In this moment of stillness, my 
thoughts returned to what had just passed at my friend’s, 
and on what I had said there. 

“And what if the Christian religion be true, after all?” 
The thought certainly was natural; and it produced in 


230 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


my bosom, the most alarming feelings. I was conscious 
that I had never examined it—not even with that atten- 
tion which a small retaining fee requires in civil cases. 
In this I hold myself bound to make up my mind accord- 
ing to the laws of evidence; and shall nothing be done of 
this sort, in a question that involves the fate of man’s 
immortal being? Where every thing is at stake, shall I 
bargain all without inquiry? Willfully blinding my own 
eyes, shall I laugh at that, which, if true, will laugh me 
to scorn in the day of judgment? ‘These questions did 
not allow me to sleep quietly. In the morning I sent to 
my friends, the clergy, for such books as treated on the 
evidence of Christianity. I read them; and the result is, 
I believe the religion of Christians to be the truth; that 
Jesus Christ is the Son of God; that he made an atone- 
ment for our sins by his death; and that he rose for our 
justification.” 

This illustrious statesman thus clearly and forcibly 
asserts man’s inalienable right to his liberty, regarding it 
as the gift of the great Creator: 

“The Supreme Intelligence who rules the world has 
constituted an eternal law, which is obligatory upon all 
mankind, prior to any human institution whatever. He 
gave existence to man, together with the means of pre- 
serving and beautifying that existence, and investing him 
with an inviolable right to pursue liberty and personal 
safety. Natural liberty is the gift of the Creator to the 
whole human race. Civil liberty is only natural liberty 
modified and secured by the sanctions of civil society. 
It is not dependent on human caprice, but it is conform- 
able to the constitution of man, as well as necessary to 
the well-being of society. The sacred rights of mankind 


Infidels Converted. O31 


are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or 
musty records. They are written, as with a sunbeam, in 
the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of Divin- 
ity itself, and can never be erased or obscured by human 
power. This is what is called the law of nature, which, 
being coeval with mankind and dictated by God himself, 
is, of course, superior in obligation to any other. No 
human laws are of any validity if contrary to this. It is 
binding over all the globe, in all countries, and at all 
times.” 
SOAME JENYNS. 3 

Soame Jenyns, at one period of his life, was a con- 
firmed infidel, and in this state of mind he continued for 
a number of years. His principles, however, did not. 
yield him inward peace and true satisfaction; and, like 
an honest man, he thought it his duty to examine the 
evidences of the Christian religion. The result was, he 
saw into his error, and became a decided convert to the 
faith as itis in Jesus. Moreover, he wrote a treatise in 
defense of the gospel, entitled, A View of the Internal 
Evidences of Christianity ; a work that is regarded by all 
theologians as one of the most satisfactory to the believer, 
and convincing to the skeptic. 


DR. OKELY. 


Dr. Okely, at one time an avowed unbeliever, pub- 
lished a work, entitled, Pyrology, or the Connection Be- 
tween Natural and Moral Philosophy, with a Disquisition 
on the Origin of Christianity, in which he endeavored to 
overthrow the christian system. Subsequently, however, 
he changed his mind, and published a full renunciation of 


232 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


his infidel views, and also a candid apology for the wrong 
he had done. Ue says: 

“The author of Pyrology feels himself BEECHER im- 
pelled to make known, that he is now thoroughly con- 
vinced of the moral government of God, the immortality 
of the human soul, or future state, and of the truth of 
Christianity in its fullest extent. For his involuntary 
error he confidently hopes to be pardoned by Almighty 
God, through the merits of Jesus Christ; but at the same 
time, he thinks it his duty, in this public manner to so- 
licit the pardon of his readers for having, as much.as in 
him lay, though he trusts ineffectually, contributed to 
lead them astray.” 


JOHN W. ROCHESTER. 


The lives of few individuals have been more stained 
with profligacy than that of the Earl of Rochester. He 
was a great favorite at the corrupt court of Charles II, 
and his intemperance and licentiousness knew no bounds. 
Dr. Johnson says of him that he “blazed out his youth 
and his health in lavish voluptuousness,” and died from 
physical exhaustion and decay at the age of thirty-three. 
During his wicked career, he was thoroughly imbued with 
the pernicious principles of infidelity. Previous to his 
death, however, he recanted his infidel principles, and 
repented of his wicked deeds. The fifty-third chapter of 
Isaiah contributed largely to his conversion. His con- 
fession is as follows: 

“For the benefit of all those whom I may have drawn 
into sin, by my example and encouragement, I leave to 
the world this, my last declaration, which I deliver in the 
presence of that great God, who knows the secrets of all 


Infidels Converted. 233 


hearts, and before whom [I am now appearing to be 
judged : 

“That, from the bottom of my soul, I detest and abhor 
the whole course of my former wicked life; that, I think 
I can never sufficiently admire the goodness of God, who 
has given me a true sense of my pernicious opinions and 
vile practices, by which I have hitherto lived without 
hope and without God in the world; have been an open 
enemy to Jesus Christ, doing the utmost despite to the 
Holy Spirit of Grace; and that the greatest testimony of 
my charity to such, is, to warn them, in the name of 
God, and, as they regard the welfare of their immortal 
souls, no more to deny his being, or his providence, or 
despise his goodness; no more to make a mock of sin, or 
contemn the pure and excellent religion of my ever- 
blessed Redeemer, through whose merits alone, I, one of 
the greatest sinners, do yet hope for mercy and forgive- 
ness.” 

Notwithstanding the irregular habits of the Karl of 
Rochester, he still had a high regard for virtue and 
truth. Writing to his son, he gives the following excel- 
lent advice: “ The way to be truly wise is to serve God. 
According as you employ your time, you are to be happy 
or unhappy forever. Youshall want no pleasure while you 
are good, and that you may be so is my constant prayer. 
Obedience to those who instruct you in good things, is 
the way to make you happy here and forever. Avoid 
idleness, scorn lying, and God will bless you.” 


THOMAS SCOTT, D.D. 


The radical change that takes place in the views of some 
20 


234 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


individuals on the subject of religion is most remarkable. 
Of this, the Rev. Thomas Scott is a striking instance. 
From being a conceited skeptic, he became a distinguished 
minister of the Gospel. His Commentary on the Bible 
has passed through several editions, and is regarded by 
all theologians who are acquainted with it, as one of the 
best in the English language. In his work entitled, The 
Force of Truth, he says: “I feel myself impelled to 
declare that I once was not much more disposed to credit 
the Scriptures than Mr. Paine; and having got rid of the 
shackles of education, was much flattered by my eman- 
cipation and superior discernment. But twenty years, 
employed in diligently investigating the evidences and 
contents of the Bible, have produced in me an unshaken 
assurance that it is the word of God.” 


JOHANN F. STRUENSER. 


Count Struensee was prime minister of Denmark, under 
Christian VII, whose downfall produced the tragical 
revolution in the Danish Cabinet of 1772. This illus- 
trious individual, for a long time, was an open and con- 
firmed infidel. Suddenly, however, he was removed from 
his elevated position, and confined in a gloomy dungeon. 
Here he spent four months, but was favored with the 
visits of a pious cletgyman, the Rev. Dr. Munter. He 
now commenced a rigid examination of the evidences of 
Christianity, and became thoroughly convinced of its 
truth, and showed himself a sincere penitent. Before he 
went to the scaffold, he made a confession, remarkable 
for its candor and honesty, in which he says: 

“‘My former unbelief and aversion to religion, were 
founded neither upon an accurate inquiry into its truth, 


Infidels Converted. Jou 


nor upon a critical examination of those doubts which are 
generally made againstit. They arose, as is usual in such 
cases, from a very general and superficial knowledge of 
religion on one side, and much inclination to disobey its 
precepts on the other, together with a readiness to enter- 
tain every objection which I discovered against it.” 

“‘T never imagined that Christianity was founded on 
such strong evidences, or that they would have convinced 
meso. After a calm examination, I have found them to 
be unexceptionable; and none, if they only take the 
proper time, and are not against the trouble of meditat- 
ing, can ever examine it without being convinced of its 
truth. Every thing is naturally and well connected, and 
recommends itself to a mind given to reflection. I never 
found in Deistical writings a system so well connected, 
and, upon the whole, I am inclined to believe there is no 
such thing as a regular system of infidelity.” 

“The more I learn christianity from scripture, the 
more I grow convinced, how unjust these objections are 
with which it is charged. I find, for instance, that all which 
Voltaire says of the intolerance of christians, and of 
blood-shedding caused by christianity, is a very unjust 
charge laid upon religion. It is easy to be seen, that 
those cruelties, said to be caused by religion, if properly 
considered, were the productions of human passions, self- 
ishness, and ambition, and that religion, served in such 
cases only for a cloak. 

‘“T am fully convinced of the truth of the christian relig- 
ion, and I feel its power in quieting my conscience, and re- 
forming my sentiments. Ihave examined it during a good 
state of health, and with all the reason I am master of. 
Whenever I formerly thought on religion in some serious 


236 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


moments, I had always an idea in my mind how it ought to 
be, which was, it should be simple and accommodated to 
the abilities of men in every condition. I now find 
christianity to be exactly so: it answers entirely that 
idea which I had formed of true religion. 

‘‘T observe in Paul a great genius, much wisdom, and 
true philosophy. ‘The apostles write extremely well, now 
and then with inimitable beauty, and at the same time with 
simplicity and clearness. The freethinkers extol the 
fables of Ausop, but the parables and narrations of Christ 
will not please them; notwithstanding they are derived 
from a greater knowledge of nature, and contain more 
excellent morality. Besides, they are proposed with a 
more noble and artless simplicity, than any writings of the 
kind, among ancient or modern authors.” 


GILBERT WEST: GEORGE LYTTLETON. 


The instances of infidels being converted by carefully 
examining the evidences of Christianity, are not only 
numerous, but striking and full of interest. Perhaps the 
most geet are those of Mr. West and Lord Lyttle- 
ton, as related by the Rev. Mr. Biddulph. He says: 

“The effect which was wrought on the mind of the cele- 
brated Gilbert West, by that particular evidence of our 
Lord’s resurrection which was afforded to his apostles, 
was very remarkable. He and his friend, Lord Lyttleton, 
both men of acknowledged talents, had imbibed the prin- 
ciples of infidelity from a superficial view of the Scrip- 
tures. Fully persuaded that the Bible was an imposture, 
they were determined to expose the cheat. Mr. West 
chose the resurrection of Christ, and Lord Lyttleton the 
conversion of St. Paul, for the subject of hostile criti- 


Infidels Converted. 287 


cism. Both sat down to their respective tasks, full of 
prejudice and a contempt for Christianity. The result of 
their separate attempts was truly extraordinary. They 
were both converted by their endeavors to overthrow the 
truth of Christianity. They came together, not, as they 
expected, to exult over an imposture exposed to ridicule, 
but to lament their own folly, and to congratulate each 
other on their joint conviction, that the Bible was the 
word of God. Their able inquiries have furnished two 
most valuable treatises in favor of revelation; one en- 
titled, Observations on the Conversion of St. Paul, and the 
other, Observations on the Resurrection of Christ.” 

After Dr. Doddridge had published his Memoirs of 
Colonel Gardiner, Mr. West wrote him a letter, in which 
he speaks most warmly of the influence of early training. 
He observes: “I can not help taking notice of your re- 
marks upon the advantage of an early education in the 
principles of religion, because.-I have myself most hap- 
pily experienced it; since I owe to the early care of a 
most excellent woman, my mother, that bent and bias to 
religion, which, with the operating grace of God, hath at 
length brought me back to those paths of peace from 
which I might have otherwise been in danger of devi- 
ating forever.” 

Two days previous to the death of Lord Lyttleton, he 
addressed his physician in these candid words: “ Doctor, 
you shall be my confessor. When I first set out in the 
world, I had friends who endeavored to shake my belief 
in the christian religion. I saw difficulties which stag- 
gered me, but I kept my mind open to conviction. The 
evidences and doctrines of christianity, studied with 
attention, made me a most firm and persuaded believer of 


238 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


the christian religion. J have made it the rule of my 
life, and it is the ground of my future hopes.” 


FRIEDRICH AUGUST G. THOLUCK. 


Tholuck, in early life, was an infidel, but afterward a 
christian. He became Professor of Theology at Berlin, 
and subsequently ac Halle. He published a variety of 
theological works. He was a decided opponent of Ra- 
tionalism, and a most earnest advocate of orthodox chris- 
tianity. In his Preface to the Exposition of St. Paul’s 
Epistle to the Romans, he thus relates his conversion: 

“In early boyhood, infidelity had forced its way into 
my heart, and at the age of twelve I was wont to scoff at 
Christianity and its truths. Hard has been the struggle 
which I have come through, before attaining to assurance 
of that faith in which I am now blessed. I prove, how- 
ever, in myself, and acknowledge it with praise to the 
Almighty, that the longer I live, the more does serious 
study, combined with the experiences of life, help me to 
recognize in the Christian doctrine an inexhaustible 
fountain of true knowledge, and serve to strengthen the 
conviction that all the wisdom of this world is but folly 
when compared with the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ.” 


“HENRY KIRKE WHITE. 


In the world’s great list of literary characters, there is 
no instance more remarkable than that of Henry Kirke 
White. From early childhood he showed a passionate 
fondness for books. ‘When he was about eleven years 
of age,” says his biographer, Southey, “ he one day wrote 
a separate theme for every boy in his class, which con- 


Infidels Converted. 239 


sisted of twelve or fourteen. The master said he had 
never known them to write so well upon any subject 
before, and could not refrain from expressing his aston- 
ishment at the excellence of Henry’s.” At the age of 
fourteen, he wrote beautiful poetry, and subsequently 
published a volume of poems, in the preface to which he 
states that they were the production of a youth of seven- 
teen. ‘Though the work was unfairly criticized by the 
Reviewers, he was kindly noticed and encouraged by 
such geniuses as Byron and Southey. 

While Kirke White was quite young, and a student at 
law, he doubted the truth of Christianity, but he soon 
underwent a change. His biographer gives an account 
of his conversion, portions of which we take the liberty 
to transcribe : 

“One of his earliest and most intimate friends, Mr. 
Almond, was accidentally present at a death-bed, and 
was so struck with what he then saw of the power and 
influence, and inestimable value of religion, that he 
formed a firm determination to renounce all such pur- 
suits as were not strictly compatible with it. That he 
might not be shaken in this resolution, he withdrew from 
the society of all those persons whose ridicule or censure 
he feared; and was particularly careful to avoid Henry, 
of whose raillery he stood most in dread. He anxiously 
shunned him, therefore; till Henry, who would not suffer 
an intimacy of long standing to be broken off he knew 
not why, called upon his friend, and desired to know the 
cause of this unaccountable conduct towards himself and 
their common acquaintance. 

‘¢Mr. Almond, who had received him with trembling 
and reluctance, replied to this expostulation, that a total 


240 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


change had been effected in his religious views, and that 
he was prepared to defend his opinions and conduct, if 
Henry would allow the Bible to be the word of truth and 
the standard of appeal. Upon this Henry exclaimed, in 
a tone of strong emotion, ‘Good God! you surely regard 
me ina worse light than I deserve!’ His friend pro- 
ceeded to say, that what he had said was from a convic- 
tion that they had no common ground on which to 
contend, Henry having more than once suggested, that 
the book of Isaiah was an epic, and that of Job a dramatic, 
poem. He then stated what the change was which had 
taken place in his own views and intentions, and the 
motives for his present conduct. From the manner in 
which Henry listened, it became evident that his mind 
was ill at ease, and that he was noways satisfied with 
himself. His friend, therefore, who had expected to be 
assailed in a tone of triumphant superiority by one in the 
pride of youthful confidence of great intellectual powers, 
and, as yet, ignorant of his own ignorance, found him- 
self unexpectedly called upon to act the monitor?” 

Mr. Almond was about to enter at Cambridge: on the 
evening before his departure for the University, Henry 
requested that he would accompany him to the little 
room, which was called his study. ‘ We had no sooner 
entered,” says Mr. Almond, “than he burst into tears, 
and declared that his anguish of mind was insupportable. 
He entreated that I would kneel down and pray for him; 
and most cordially were our tears and supplications 
mingled at that interesting moment. When I took my 
leave, he exclaimed, ‘What must I do? You are the 
only friend to whom I can apply in this agonizing state, 
and you are about to leave me. My literary associates 


Infidels Converted. 241 


are all inclined to deism. I have no one with whom I 
can communicate.’ ” 

“A new pursuit was thus opened to him, and he en- 
gaged in it with his wonted ardor. ‘It was a constant 
feature in his mind,’ says Mr. Pigott, ‘to persevere in 
the pursuit of what he deemed noble and important. 
What he said to me when we became intimate is worthy 
of observation: that, he said, which first made him dis- 
satisfied with the creed he had adopted, and the standard 
of practice which he had set up for himself, was the 
purity of mind which he perceived was every-where 
inculcated in the Holy Scriptures, and required of every 
one who would become a successful candidate for future 
blessedness. He had supposed that morality of conduct 
was all the purity required: but when he observed that 
purity of the very thoughts and intentions of the soul 
also was requisite, he was convinced of his deficiences, 
and could find no comfort to his penitence, but in the 
atonement made for human frailty by the Redeemer of 
mankind ; and no strength adequate to his weakness, and 
sufficient for resisting evil, but the aid of God’s spirit, 
promised to those who seek them from above in the 
sincerity of earnest prayer.’ From the moment when he 
had fully contracted these opinions, he was resolved upon 
devoting his life to the promulgation of them; and, 
therefore, to leave the law, and, if possible, place himself 
at one of the universities. Every argument was used by 
his friends to dissuade him from his purpose, but to no 
effect: his mind was unalterably fixed, and great and 
numerous as the obstacles were, he was determined to 
surmount them all. Without ambition he could not have 

21 


242 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


existed; but his ambition now was to be eminently use- 
ful in the ministry.” 

Carrying out his purposes, he subsequently went to 
Cambridge, where he made rapid progress in his studies, 
and became an object of admiration and esteem to all 
around him. By over-study, however, he seriously in- 
jured a constitution that had never been strong, and 
brought on that insidious disease, consumption. At the 
early age of twenty-two, he died; and thus was lost to 
the world, a youthful genius, who, had he lived, would 
have shone in the religious firmament, as a star of the 
first magnitude. 

Many of his poems were written about the age of four- 
teen, and all of them two or three years. afterward. 
They abound with-beautiful thoughts and sublime strains 
that would be an honor to any poet. 

From his poem on Time, we make an extract that 
shows his great admiration of Christian faith and his 
utter disregard of philosophic skepticism and infidelity. 
After describing the happy lot of a christian, limited in 
worldly means, but blest with contentment, he asks: 


“And shall it e’er be said, that a poor hind, 
Nursed in the lap of ignorance, and bred 
In want and labor, glows with nobler zeal 
To laud his Maker’s attributes, while he 
Whom starry science in her cradle rocked, 
And Castaly enchastened with its dews, 
Closes his eyes upon the Holy Word, 
And, blind to all but arrogance and pride, 
Dares to declare his infidelity, 

And openly contemn the Lord of Hosts? 
What is philosophy, if it impart 
Trreverence for the Deity, or teach 


Infidels Converted. 243 


A mortal man to set his judgment up 

Against his Maker’s will? The Polygar, 

Who kneels to sun or moon, compared with him, 
Who thus perverts the talents he enjoys 

Is the most bless’d of men! QO! I would walk 

A weary journey to the farthest verge 

Of the big world, to kiss that good man’s hand, 
Who, in the blaze of wisdom and of art, 
Preserves a lowly mind; and, to his God, 
Feeling the sense of his own littleness, 

Is as a child in meek simplicity !” 


Among the latest writings of Kirke White, was a 
series of resolutions, one of which is: “I willnever pass 
a day without reading some portion of the Scriptures.” 

In giving advice to the young, Kirke White writes 
more like a divine of age and experience than a youth 
of twenty. How full of true wisdom is the following: 

‘““T would, therefore, exhort you earnestly—you who 
are yet unskilled in the ways of the world—to beware on 
what object you concentrate your hopes. Pleasures may 
allure; pride or ambition may stimulate; but their fruits 
are hollow and deceitful, and they afford no sure, no 
solid satisfaction. You are placed on the earth in a state 
of probation: your continuance here will be, at the long- 
est, a very short period; and when you are called hence, 
you plunge into an eternity, the completion of which 
will be in correspondence to your past life, unutterably 
happy, or inconceivably miserable. Your fate will prob- 
ably depend on your early pursuits: it will be these 
which will give the turn to your character and to your 
pleasures. I beseech you, therefore, with a meek and 
lowly spirit, to read the pages of that Book which the 
wisest and best of men have acknowledged to be the 


244 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


Word of God. You will there find a rule of moral con- 
duct such as the world never had any idea of before its 
divulgation. If you covet earthly happiness, it is only 
to be found in the path you will there find laid down; and 
I confidently promise you, in a life of simplicity and 
purity—a life passed in accordance with the Divine 
Word, such substantial bliss, such unrufiled peace, as is 
nowhere else to be found. All other schemes of earthly 
pleasure are fleeting and unsatisfactory. They all entail 
upon them repentance and bitterness of thought. This 
alone endureth forever: this alone embraces equally the 
present and the future: this alone can arm a man against 
every calamity—can alone shed the balm of peace over 
that scene of life when pleasures have lost their zest, and 
the mind can no longer look forward to the dark and 
mysterious future. Above all, beware of the ignis fatuus 
of false philosophy. That must be a very defective sys- 
tem of ethics which will not bear a man through the most 
trying stage of his existence; and I know of none that 
will do it but the Christian.” 


A CONVERTED LAWYER. 


A circumstance is related in one of the publications of 
the American Tract Society, respecting an eminent 
lawyer of one of the northern United States, that is 
worthy of the highest consideration, especially by the 
skeptic and unbeliever. This lawyer was a very profane 
man, and thoroughly infidel in his views. On a certain 
occasion, however, he had the candor to ask another 
lawyer what books he should read on the evidences of 
Christianity. He was advised to read, in the first in- 
stance, the Bible itself, inasmuch as most infidels are very 


Infidels Converted. 245 


ignorant of it; and furthermore, in order to reason cor- 
rectly on any subject, it is necessary to understand what 
it is that we reason about. It was stated to him also, 
that the internal evidences of the Bible are even stronger 
than the external. He was advised to begin his perusal 
of the Bible, with the book of Genesis. This advice was 
complied with: the aid of commentaries, and of his legal 
friend, was employed in solving difficulties. 

One evening, some time after this course of study was 
commenced, the Christian lawyer called on his skeptical 
friend, and found him walking his room, and so _ pro- 
foundly engaged in thought that his own entrance into 
the room was not noticed, until he asked his friend what 
it was that occupied his attention. 

The skeptic replied, “ I have been reading the moral 
law.” 

‘Well, what do you think of it,” replied the other. 

“‘T will tell you what I used to think of it,’ said the 
skeptic. “I supposed that Moses was the leader of a 
horde of banditti: that having a strong mind, he acquired 
great influence over a superstitious people; and that on 
Mount Sinai he played off some sort of fire-works, to the 
amazement of his ignorant followers, who imagined, in 
their mingled fear and superstition, that the exhibition 
was supernatural.” 

“ But what do you think now?” asked his friend. 

“T have been looking,” replied the skeptic, “into the 
nature of that law. I have been trying to see whether I 
can add any thing to it, or take any thing from it, so as to 
make it better. Sir, I can not. It is perfect. 

“The First Commandment,” he continued, “ directs 
us to make the Creator the object of supreme love and 


246 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


reverence. That is right: if he be our Creator, Pre- 
server, and supreme Benefactor, we ought to treat him, 
and no other, as such. 

“The Second Commandment forbids idolatry. That 
precept certainly is right. 

“The Third, with equal justness, forbids profanity. 

“The Fourth fixes a time for religious worship. If 
there is a God, he ought certainly to be worshiped. It 
is suitable that there should be an outward homage, sig- 
nificant of our inward regard. If God is to be wor- 
shiped, it is proper that some time should be set apart 
for that purpose, when all may worship him harmoni- 
ously, and without interruption. One day in seven is 
certainly not too much; and I do not know that it is too 
little. 

“The Fifth defines the peculiar duties arising from 
family relations. 

“Injuries to our neighbor are then classified by the 
moral law. They are divided into offenses against life, 
chastity, property, and character. And,” said he, ap- 
plying a legal idea with legal acuteness, “I notice that 
the greatest offense in each class is expressly forbidden. 
Thus, the greatest injury to life is murder: to chastity, 
adultery: to property, theft: to character, perjury. 
Now the greater offense must include the lesser of the 
same kind. Murder must include every injury to life; 
adultery every injury to purity; and so of the rest. 
And the moral code is closed and perfected by a pro- 
hibition, forbidding every improper desire in regard to 
our neighbor. 

‘‘T have been thinking,” he proceeded, “‘ Where did 
Moses get that law? Ihave read history. The Egyp- 


Jews. AT 


tians and the adjacent nations were idolators: so were 
the Greeks and Romans: and the wisest and best of 
Greeks or Romans never gave a code of morals like this. 
Where did Moses get this law, which surpasses the wis- 
dom and philosophy of the most enlightened ages? He 
lived at a period comparatively barbarous: but he has 
given a law, in which the learning and sagacity of all 
subsequent times can detect no flaw. Where did he get 
it? He could not have soared so far above his age as to 
have devised ithimself. Iam satisfied where he obtained 
it. It must have come from heaven. I am convinced of 
the truth of the religion of the Bible.” 


JEWS. 


FELIX ADLER. 


Prof. Felix Adler, the son of an orthodox Jewish rabbi, 
in a lecture before the Society for Ethical Culture, at 
New York, paid a tribute to Old Judaism, describing it 
as a religion which satisfied the yearnings of the heart, 
lifting men up to worship. He also said that the best 
part of Christianity was in the personality of its founda- 
tion, and he could not help loving the Christ. If it was 
a fiction, it was the grandest fiction ever written. He 
thought there surely must be something real in the spirit 
of Jesus, or else such fond memories would not be woven 
around his name. He honored the old-time Christians, 
because they were true. Judaism and Christianity were 
true religions, because they were true to the thoughts 
and feelings of the people. 


248 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS. 


Josephus, a celebrated Jewish historian, who flour- 
ished in the first century, bears testimony to the char- 
acter, miracles, and teachings of Christ, in his work en- 
titled, Jewish Antiquities. After relating a sedition of 
the Jews against Pontius Pilate, which the latter had 
suppressed, he says: 

‘‘ Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if 
it be lawful to call him a man; for he performed many 
wonderful works. He was the teacher of such men as 
received the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him 
many of the Jews, and also many of the Gentiles. . This 
was the Christ. And when Pilate, at the instigation of 
the principal men among us, had condemned him to the 
cross, those who had loved him from the first did not 
cease to adhere to him. For he appeared to them alive 
again, on the third day; the divine prophets having fore- 
told these and ten thousand other wonderful things con- 
cerning him. And the tribe [or sect] of Christians, so 
named from him, subsists to this time.” 

Some persons have thought it is not very probable that 
a Jew would thus speak of Christ. But why can nota 
Jewish historian be candid as well as others? Numerous 
learned critics have fully shown the passage to be genuine. 


MORDECAI M. NOAH. 


Major Mordecai M. Noah, a Jew, and popular editor of 
a New York newspaper, once gave expression to the fol- 
lowing candid and liberal opinions respecting Jesus 
Christ; and the wonder is, that opinions of a different 


Jurists. 249 


character should be held by any one having the least 
amount of intelligence and moral honesty : 

‘“‘ Jesus preached at all times, and in all places, in and 
out of the temple, with an eloquence such as no mortal 
has since possessed. Jesus was free from fanaticism: 
his was a quiet, subduing, retiring faith, He mingled 
with the poor, communed with the wretched, avoided the 
rich, and rebuked the vainglorious. He sincerely be- 
lieved his mission, courted no one, flattered no one; was 
pointed and severe in his denunciations. These are not 
the characteristics of an impostor; but admitting that we 
give a different interpretation to his mission, when one 
hundred and fifty millions believe in his divinity, and we 
see around us abundant evidence of the happiness, good 
faith, mild government, and liberal feelings which spring 
from his religion, what right has any one to call him an 
impostor? That religion which is calculated to make 
mankind happy, cen not be a false one.” 


JURISTS. 


WILLIAM BLACKSTONE. 


No name is more illustrious in the legal profession 
than that of Sir William Blackstone. Few books have 
exerted a wider influence than his Commentaries on the 
Laws of England. It is generally the first book that is 
put into the hands of the law-student; and perhaps more 
frequent reference is made to it by members of the legal 
profession, in their course of practice, than to any other. 


Sir William Jones, speaking of Blackstone, says: His 


250 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


Commentaries are the most correct and beautiful outline 
that ever was exhibited by any human science.” This 
distinguished jurist thus reasons on the resemblance be- 
tween the law of nature and the great truths of reve- 
lation : 

‘“‘ Law, in its most general and comprehensive sense, 
signifies a rule of action, and is applied indiscriminately 
to all kinds of action, whether animate or inanimate, 
rational or irrational.’ ‘Man, considered as a creature, 
must necessarily be subject to the laws of his Creator, 
for he is entirely a dependent being.” ‘And, conse- 
quently, as a man depends absolutely upon his Maker 
for every thing, it is necessary that he should, in all 
points, conform to his Maker’s will.” ‘This will of his 
Maker is called the law of Nature.” 

“This law of nature being coeval with mankind, and 
dictated by God himself, is, of course, superior in obliga- 
tion to any other. It is binding over all the globe, 
in all countries, and at all times: no human laws 
are of any validity if contrary to this; and such of 
them as are valid, derive all their force and all their 
authority, mediately or immediately, from this original. 

‘“‘ But in order to apply this to the particular exigen- 
cies of each individual, it is still necessary to have re- 
course to reason; whose office it is to discover, as was 
before observed, what the law of nature directs in every 
circumstance of life; by considering what method will 
tend the most effectually to our own substantial happi- 
ness. And if our reason were always, as in our first 
ancestor before his transgression, clear and perfect, un- 
ruffled by passions, unclouded by prejudice, unimpaired 
by disease or intemperance, the task would be pleasant 


Jurists. pbs 


and easy ; we should need no other guide than this. But 
every man now finds the contrary in his own experience ; 
that his reason is corrupt, and his understanding full of 
ignorance and error. 

“This has given manifold occasion for the benign in- 
terposition of Divine Providence; which, in compassion 
to the frailty, the imperfection, and the blindness of 
human reason, hath been pleased, at sundry times, and 
in divers manners, to discover and enforce its laws by an 
immediate and direct revelation. The doctrines thus 
delivered we call the revealed or divine law, and they are 
to be found only in the Holy Scriptures. These precepts, 
when revealed, are found, upon comparison, to be really 
a part of the original law of nature, as they tend in all 
their consequences to man’s felicity. But we are not 
from thence to conclude that the knowledge of these 
truths was attainable by reason, in its present corrupted 
state; since we find that, until they were revealed, they 
were hid from the wisdom of ages. As then, the moral 
precepts of this law are, indeed, of the same original 
with those of the law of nature, so their intrinsic obliga- 
tion is of equal strength and perpetuity. Yet, undoubt- 
edly, the revealed law is of infinitely more authenticity 
than that moral system which is framed by ethical 
writers, and denominated the natural law. Because one 
is the law of nature, expressly declared so to be by God 
himself; the other is only what, by the assistance of 
human reason, we imagine to be that law. If we could 
be as certain of the latter as we are of the former, both 
would have an equal authority; but, till then, they can 
never be put in any competition together.” 


252 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


RUFUS CHOATE. 


Rufus Choate, one of the most talented and accom- 
plished lawyers, and brilliant and successful advocates 
of the American bar, speaking of the agency of Divine 
Providence, says: 

“Ido not forget that a power above man’s power, a 
wisdom above man’s wisdom, a reason above man’s rea- 
son, may be traced, without the presumptuousness of 
fanaticism, in the fortunes of America. I do not forget 
that God has been in our history. Beyond that dazzling 
progress of art, society, thought, which is of his ordain- 
ing, although it may seem to a false philosophy, a fatal 
and inevitable flaw,—beyond this, there has been, and 
there may be again, interposition, providential, excep- 
tional, and direct, of that Supreme Agency, without 
which no sparrow falleth.” 


THOMAS ERSKINE. 


Lord Erskine, one of Scotland’s most illustrious jur- 
ists, had a high regard for Christianity, as the following 
testimony shows: ‘‘No man ever existed, who is more 
alive to every thing connected with the Christian faith, 
than I am, or more unalterably impressed with its truths.” 

Being engaged in a case for the prosecution of Mr. 
Paine for publishing a blasphemous publication, he 
uttered the following eloquent sentiments : 

‘“‘ Tt seems that this is an age of reason, and the time 
and the person are at last arrived, that are to dissipate 
the errors that have overspread the past generations of 
ignorance! ‘The believers in Christianity are many, but 
it belongs to the few that are wise to correct their 


» 
Jurists. rAits: 


credulity. Belief is an act of reason; and superior 
reason may therefore dictate to the weak. In running 
the mind along the numerous list of sincere and devout 
Christians, I can not help lamenting that Newton had 
not lived to this day, to have had his shallowness filled 
up with this new flood of light. But the subject is too 
awful for irony. I will speak plainly and directly. 
Newton was a Christian. Newton, whose mind burst 
forth from the fetters cast by nature upon our finite con- 
ceptions: Newton, whose science was truth, and the 
foundation of whose knowledge of it was philosophy. 
Not those visionary and arrogant assumptions which too 
often usurp its name, but philosophy resting upon the 
basis of mathematics, which, like figures, can not lie. 
Newton, who carried the line and rule to the utmost bar- 
riers of creation, and explored the principles by which, 
no doubt, all created matter is held together, and exists. 

“‘ But this extraordinary man, in the mighty reach of 
his mind, overlooked, perhaps, the errors which a minuter 
investigation of the created things on this earth might 
have taught him, of the essence of his Creator. What 
shall then be said of the great Mr. Boyle, who looked 
into the organic structure of all matter, even to the brute 
inanimate substances which the foot treads on. Such a 
man may be supposed to have been equally qualified 
with Mr. Paine to 


‘Look through nature up to nature’s God.’ 


Yet the result of all his contemplations was the most 
confirmed and devout belief in all which the other holds 
in contempt as despicable and driveling superstition. 
But this error might, perhaps, arise from a want of due 


254 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


attention to the foundation of human judgment, and the 
structure of that understanding which God has given us 
for the investigation of truth. 

“Let that question be answered by Mr. Locke, who 
was to the highest pitch of devotion and adoration a 
Christian. Mr. Locke, whose office was to detect the 
errors of thinking, by going up to the fountain of thought, 
and to direct into the proper track of reasoning the de- 
vious mind of man, by showing him its whole process, 
from the first perceptions of sense, to the last conclusions 
of ratiocinations; puttiag a rein besides upon false 
opinions, by practical rules for the conduct of human 
judgment. 

‘“‘ But these men were only deep thinkers, and lived in 
their closets, unaccustomed to the traffic of the world, 
and to the laws which partially regulate mankind. Gen- 
tlemen, in the place where you now sit to administer the 
justice of this great country, above a century ago the 
never-to-be-forgotten Sir Matthew Hale presided, whose 
faith in Christianity is an exalted commentary upon its 
truth and reason, and whose life was a glorious example 
of its fruits in man; administering human justice with a 
wisdom and purity drawn from the pure fountain of the 
Christian dispensation, which has been, and will be, in 
all ages, a subject of the highest reverence and admira- 
tion. But it is said by Mr. Paine, that the Christian 
fable is but the tale of the more ancient superstitions of 
the world, and may be easily detected by a proper un- 
derstanding of the mythologies of the heathens. | 

“Did Milton understand those mythologies? Was he 
less versed than Mr. Paine in the superstitions of the 
world? No: they were the subject of his immortal 


Jurists. 255 


song; and though shut out from all recurrence to them, 
he poured them forth from the stores of a memory rich 
with all that man ever knew, and laid them in their order 
as the illustration of that real and exalted faith, the 
unquestionable source of that fervid genius, which cast 
a sort of shade upon all the works of man. 


‘He passed the bounds of flaming space, 
Where angels tremble while they gaze: 
He saw, till blasted with excess of light, 
He closed his eyes in endless night.’ 


But it was the light of the body only that was extin- 
guished: ‘the celestial light shone inward, and enabled 
him to justify the ways of God to man.’ 

“Thus we find all that is great, or wise, or splendid, 
or illustrious, among created beings, all the minds gifted 
beyond ordinary nature, if not inspired by their Universal 
Author for the advancement and dignity of the world, 
though divided by distant ages, and by the clashing opin- 
ions distinguishing them from one another, yet joining, 
as it were, in one sublime chorus to celebrate the truths 
of Christianity, and laying upon its holy altars the never- 
fading offerings of their immortal wisdom.” 


MATTHEW HALE. 

Amongst the Christian jurists of England, Sir Mat- 
thew Hale stands deservedly high. He was no less an 
ornament to the religion of Christ than to the profession 
of law. Neither influence nor power could swerve him 
from the path of rectitude, nor intimidate him in the 
discharge of duty. His knowledge was varied and ex- 
tensive, not being confined to the law, but including 


256 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


divinity, mathematics, and history ; and upon all these 
subjects he wrote voluminously and with a master hand. 
The work by which he is best known, is, Contemplations, 
Moral and Divine. In a letter to one of his sons, he 
thus recommends the perusal of the inspired volume and 
the observance of the Sabbath day: 

“JT would have you, every morning, read a portion of 
the Holy Scriptures, till you have read the Bible from 
the beginning to the end. Observe it well, read it rever- 
ently and attentively, set your heart upon it, and lay it 
up in your memory, and make it the direction of your 
life; it will make you a wise and good man. I have 
been acquainted somewhat with men and books, and 
have had long experience in learning, and in the world: 
there is no book like the Bible for excellent learning, 
wisdom, and use; and it is want of understanding in 
them that think or speak otherwise.” 

“Observe conscientiously the Lord’s Day, to keep it 
holy. Avoid idle company, idle discourse, recreations, 
and secular employments, on that day. Resort twice 
that day to the public prayers and sermon: come early 
to it, be attentive at it, keep your eyes and mind from 
roving after vain thoughts or objects; and spend the 
rest of that day, that,is free from necessary occasions, In 
reading the Scriptures, or some good books of divinity.” 

Speaking of the origin of the universe, and the design 
that is every-where manifested in the works of creation, 
Sir Matthew Hale remarks: “The plain, but divine 
narrative, by the hand of Moses, full of sense, and con- 
gruity, and clearness, and reasonableness in itself, does, 
at the same moment, give us a true and clear discovery 
of this great mystery; and renders all the essays of the 


hae 


Jurists. O57 


generality of the heathen philosophers to be vain, inevi- 
dent, and, indeed, inexplicable theories, the creatures of 
phantasy and imagination, and nothing else.” 

The protraiture which Sir Matthew Hale gives of the 
True Christian Religion is one of the most accurate and 
expressive that was ever written. He says: 

“Tt teacheth and tutors thessoul to a high reverence 
and veneration of Almighty God; a sincere and upright 
walking, as in the presence of the invisible, all-seeing 
God. It makes a man truly to love, to honor, to obey 
him; and, therefore, careful to know what his will is; it 
renders the heart highly thankful to him, both as Creator, 
Redeemer, and Benefactor. It makes a man entirely to 
depend on him; to seek to him for guidance, and direc- 
tion, and protection; to submit to his will with all 
patience and resignation of soul. It gives the law, not 
only to his words and actions, but to his very thoughts 
and purposes; so that he dares not entertain a very 
thought unbecoming the sight and presence of that God 
to whom all our thoughts are legible. It teacheth and 
bringeth a man to such a deportment, both of external 
and internal sobriety, as may be decent in the presence 
of God and all his holy angels. It crusheth and casts 
down all pride and haughtiness, both in a man’s heart 
and carriage; and gives him a humble frame of soul and 
life in the sight of God and men. It regulates and 
governs the passions of the mind; and brings them into 
due moderation and frame. It gives a man a right esti- 
mate of this present world, and sets his heart and hopes 
above it; so that he never loves it more than it de- 
serves. It makes the wealth and glory of this world, 

22 


258 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


high places, and great preferments, but of a low and little 
value to him; so that he is neither covetous, nor ambitious, 
nor over-solicitous for the advantages of it. It brings a 
man to that frame, that righteousness, justice, honesty, 
and fidelity, are, as it were, parts of his nature: he can 
sooner die than commit or purpose that which is unjust, dis- 
honest, or unworthy of a good man. It makes him value 
the love of God and peace of conscience above all the 
wealth and honor in the world, and be very vigilant to 
keep it inviolably: though he be under a due apprehen- 
sion of the love of God to him, yet it keeps him humble 
and watchful, and free from all presumption; so that he 
dares not, under a vain confidence of the indulgence, and 
mercy, and favor of God, turn aside to commit or pur- 
pose even the least injury to man. He performs all his 
duties to God in sincerity, integrity, and constancy ; and, 
while he lives on earth, yet his conversation, his hopes, 
his treasure, and the flower of his expectation, are in 
heaven; and he entirely endeavors to live suitably to 
such a hope. In sum, it restores the image of God unto 
the soul in righteousness and true holiness.” 


CHIEF-JUSTICE HORNBLOWER. 


One of the highest eulogies ever uttered on the ex- 
cellence of the Bible, was by Chief-Justice Hornblower, 
of New Jersey: 

‘Let this precious volume have its due influence on 
the hearts of men, and our liberties are safe, our country 
blessed, and the world happy. There is not a tie that 
unites us to our families, not a virtue that endears us to 
our country, not a hope that thrills our bosoms in the 
prospect of future happiness, that has not its foundation 


Jurists. 259 


in this sacred Book. It is the Charter of charters, the 
palladium of liberty, the standard of righteousness. Its 
divine influence can soften the heart of the tyrant, can 
break the rod of the oppressor, and exalt the humblest 
peasant to the dignified rank of an immortal being—an 
heir of eternal glory.” 


JOHN JAY, LL.D. 


John Jay, the first Chief-Justice of the Supreme Court 
of the United States, was no less eminent as a Christian 
than as astatesman and jurist. Daniel Webster, eulogiz- 
ing his purity of character, remarked, ‘‘ When the ermine 
fell on him, it touched nothing less pure than itself.” 
Speaking of the interposition of Providence and the 
importance of Christian humility, this wise statesman 
said: | 

‘¢We should always remember that the many remark- 
able and unexpected means and events by which our 
wants have been supplied and our enemies repelled or 
restrained, are such strong and striking proofs of the in- 
terposition of Heaven, that our having been hitherto de- 
livered from the threatened bondage of Britain ought to 
be forever ascribed to its true cause; and, instead of 
swelling our breasts with arrogant ideas of our prowess 
and importance, kindle in them a flame of gratitude and 
piety which may consume all remains of vice and irre- 
ligion.”’ 

When this great and good man was on his death bed, 
he was asked if he had any farewell counsels to leave 
to his children; and the noblo response he made was, 
“They have the Book.” 


260 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


WILLIAM JONES. 


Asa profound jurist and erudite scholar, few men have 
equaled Sir William Jones. LHarly in life, he distin- 
guished himself for intense mental application. One of 
his teachers remarked of him, that if he were turned out 
in the world destitute of friends and pecuniary means, 
in a few years he would be at the summit of human 
glory. The prediction was literally fulfilled. He was 
admitted into the Inner Temple, subsequently knighted, 
afterward appointed judge of the supreme court of judi- 
cature in Bengal in the East Indies. At one time, he 
would have become a member of the British Parliament, 
but for his liberal polities, and his condemnation of the 
American war and of the African slave trade. In his 
command of languages, he scarcely had a rival, being ac- 
quainted with no fewer than twenty-eight. His poems, 
translations, philological essays, and other works, form 
twelve volumes. In fact, he was a universal genius, being 
well skilled, not only in law and the languages, but also 
in astronomy, botany, music, chronology, and antiquities. 
Before he went to India, his mind was not wholly free 
from a skeptical bias; but while there, he investigated 
those intricate theological points which had occasioned 
his doubts, and the result was, he became a decided chris- 
tian. In one of his works, he says: 

“ Theological inquiries are no part of my present sub- 
ject; but I can not refrain from adding, that the col- 
lection of tracts, which we call from their excellence the 
Scriptures, contain, independently of a divine origin, 
more true sublimity, more exquisite beauty, purer mo- 
rality, more important history, and finer strains both of 


Jurists. 261 


poetry and eloquence, than could be collected within the 
Same compass from all other books that were ever com- 
posed in any age or in any idiom. The two parts, of 
which the Scriptures consist, are connected by a chain 
of compositions, which bear no resemblance in form or 
style to any that can be produced from the stores of 
Grecian, Indian, Persian, or even Arabian learning. The 
antiquity of those compositions no man doubts; and the 
unrestrained application of them to events long subse- 
quent to their publication is a solid ground of belief, that 
they were genuine predictions, and consequently in- 
spired.” 

The superior excellence and advantages of the Christian 
Religion are referred to by Sir William Jones in language 
the most truthful and expressive. ‘ We live in the midst 
of blessings till we are utterly insensible of their great- 
ness and of the source from which they flow. We speak 
of our civilization, our arts, our freedom, our laws, and 
forget entirely how large a share is due to Christianity. 
Blot Christianity out of the pages of man’s history, and 
what would his laws have been? What his civilization? 
Christianity is mixed up with our very being and our 
daily life: there is not a familiar object around us 
which does not wear a different aspect because the life 
of Christian love is on it—not a law which does not owe 
its gentleness to Christianity—not a custom which can 
not be traced, in all its holy, healthful parts, to the 
Gospel.” 

JAMES KENT, LL.D. 

Chancellor James Kent, son of Chief-Justice Kent, 
and Professor in Columbia College, was an eminent 
jurist, and author of an admirable work, Commentaries 


262 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


on Law. The names of both father and son are illustri- 
ous in American jurisprudence, and the memory of their 
virtues is endeared to the nation. Moreover, they both 
held the Christian religion in the highest esteem, and 
gave legal decisions against blasphemy that reflect great 
eredit on their talents and judgment. The Chancellor 
thus speaks of the benign influence of Christianity : 

‘The law of nations, so far as it is founded on the 
principles of natural law, is equally binding in every age, 
and upon all mankind. But the Christian nations of 
Europe, and their descendants on this side of the Atlantic, 
by the vast superiority of their attainments in arts, and 
science, and commerce, as well as in policy and govern- 
ment, and, above all, by the brighter light, the more 
certain truths, and the more definite sanction which 
Christianity has communicated to the ethical jurispru- 
dence of the ancients, have established a law of nations 
peculiar to themselves. They form together a com- 
munity of nations, united by religion, manners, morals, 
humanity, and science, and united also by the mutual 
advantages of commercial intercourse, by the habit of 
forming alliances and treaties with each other, of inter- 
changing ambassadors, and of studying and recognizing 
the same writers and systems of public law.” 

Speaking of the connection of the law of nature with 
the laws of divine revelation, Kent says: 

“The law of nature, by the obligations of which in- 
dividuals and states are bound, is identical with the will 
of God, and that will is ascertained, says Mr. Manning, 
either by consulting divine revelation, where that is de- 
claratory, or by the application of human reason where 
revelation is silent. Christianity, in the words of Butler, 


Jurists. 263 


‘is an authoritative publication of natural religion,’ and 
it is from the sanction which revelation gives to natural 
law, that we must expect the gradual increase of the 
respect paid to justice between nations. Christianity 
reveals to us a general system of morality, but the appli- 
cation to the details of practice is left to be discovered 
by human reason.” 

In referring to various efforts that were made to im- 
prove the condition of Europe, subsequent to the over- 
throw of the Roman Empire, Kent says: 

‘Of all these causes ‘of reformation, the most weight 
is to be attributed to the intimate alliance of the great 
powers as one Christian community. The influence of 
Christianity was very efficient toward the introduction 
of a better and more enlightened sense of right and jus- 
tice among the governments of Europe. It taught the 
duty of benevolence to strangers, of humanity to the 
vanquished, of the obligation of good faith, and of the 
sin of murder, revenge and rapacity. The history of 
Europe, during the early periods of modern history, 
abounds with interesting and strong cases, to show the 
authority of: the church over turbulent princes and fierce 
warriors, and the effect of that authorjty in meliorating 
manners, checking violence, and introducing a system of 
morals which inculcated peace, moderation and justice. 
The church had its councils, or convocations of the clergy, 
which formed the nations professing Christianity into a 
connection resembling a federal alliance, and those coun- 
cils sometimes settled the titles and claims of princes, 
and regulated the temporal affairs of the Christian powers. 
The confederacy of the Christian nations was bound 


264 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


together by a sense of common duty and interest in 
respect to the rest of mankind.” 

In speaking of the superior influence of the sacred 
Volume in benefiting human society, the language of 
Kent is most positive and explicit. He says: “ The 
general diffusion of the Bible is the most effectual way 
to civilize and humanize mankind; to purify and exalt 
the general system of public morals; to give efficacy to 
the just precepts of international and municipal law ; to 
enforce the observance of prudence, temperance, justice, 
and fortitude, and to improve all the relations of domestic 
and social life.” 

He further remarks: “‘ The Bible is equally adapted to 
the wants and infirmities of every human being. No 
other book ever addressed itself so authoritatively and 
so pathetically to the judgment and moral sense of 
mankind.” 

JOHN MARSHALL, LL.D. 

Chief-Justice Marshall, who presided over the Supreme 
Court of the United States for more than the third of a 
century, continued to repeat each night and morning the 
holy prayers taught him by his devoted mother; and 
though he was so actively engaged in expounding the 
laws of his country and of nations, which he did to uni- 
versal admiration, yet he taught in a Sabbath school, 
where he expounded the sublimer laws and truths of the 
Christian religion. He died as he lived, reposing an un- 
shaken trust in his Savior. 

During his life-time, he was ever ready to defend the 
principles of the religion which he professed, when it was 
assailed in his presence. This he did to the admiration 


Jurists. 265 


ofall. A traveler visiting Winchester, Virginia, relates 
the following circumstance: ‘The people here like to 
recur to the visits of Chief-Justice Marshall, who often re- 
sorted to its old tavern forrest. On one occasion he drove 
up in a one-horse buggy with both shafts broken and 
bandaged, and himself in a careless, farmer-like dress. 
Two young lawyers boarded there, and used up the hours: 
until ten o’clock or later, disputing earnestly about the 
genuineness, authenticity, and divine inspiration of the 
Bible. Growing weary of contention, one of them turned 
to the judge, and striking him familiarly on the knee, 
said, ‘Old man, what do you think about this subject?’ 
The Chief-Justice at once commenced an argument, 
arranging carefully his premises and introducing his 
evidence, presenting its merits, and then drawing his 
conclusions, with such logic, learning, and eloquence in 
support of the divine authenticity of the Bible, that all 
were fixed in admiration. When he finished, they asked 
who he was. Learning his name, and overpowered with 
his arguments, no one undertook to make areply. All 
were willing to accept his decision as final.” 


JOHN M° LEAN. 


Judge McLean, who for more than thirty years sat on 
the bench of the Supreme Court of the United States, 
and who was regarded as one of the most learned and 
accomplished of jurists, held the Christian religion in the 
highest veneration, being a devoted member of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, and a warm advocate of 
Sabbath schools, and the observance of the Christian 
Sabbath. How true and how just are his remarks: ; 

23 


266 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


“ Where there is no Christian Sabbath there is no 
Christian morality; and without this, free institutions 
can not long be sustained.” “ For many years my hope 
for the perpetuity of our institutions has rested upon 
Bible morality and the general dissemination of Chris- 
tian principles. This is an element which did not exist 
in the ancient republics. It is a basis on which free 
governments may be maintained through all time.” 


CHARLES DE SECONDAT MONTESQUIEU. 


One of the illustrious writers of France, was Baroa de 
Montesquieu. After filling various public offices, he 
retired into privacy, in order that he might devote him- 
self exclusively to literature. His fame rests chiefly on 
his Spirit of Laws. It has been said that it is one of the 
most valuable products of French philosophy which ap- 
peared in the eighteenth century. It was the result of 
twenty years’ labor. So great was its success that, in 
eighteen months after its publication, it passed through 
twenty-two editions, and was translated into most of the 
European languages, and has ever since held a prominent 
place in the philosophy of jurisprudence and politics. It 
has been admired by the ripest scholars, greatest states- 
men, and deepest thinkers of all civilized countries. In 
his writings, he speaks in high terms of the exalted aims 
and influence of Christianity. 

One of his laconic remarks is this: ‘ How admirable 
ig that religion, which, while it seems to have in view 
only the felicity of another world, is, at the same time, 
the highest happiness in this.” 

In his Spirit of Laws, he observes: 

“The mildness so frequently recommended in the gos- 


Jurists. 267 


pel is incompatible with the despotic rage with which an 
arbitrary tyrant punishes his subjects and exercises him- 
self in cruelty. It is the Christian religion which, in 
spite of the extent of empire and the influence of climate, 
has hindered despotism from being established in Ethi- 
opia, and has carried into Africa the manners of Europe. 
The heir to the throne of Ethiopia enjoys a principality, 
and gives to other subjects an example of love and obedi- 
ence. Not far from hence may be seen the Moham- 
medan shutting up the children of the king of Sennaar, 
at whose death the council sends to murder them in 
favor of the prince who ascends the throne.” 

‘“¢To assert that religion has no restraining power, be- 
cause it does not always restrain, is to assert, that civil 
laws have likewise no restraining power. He reasons 
falsely against religion who enumerates at great lengths 
the evils which some think it has produced, and over- 
looks the advantages. Were I to recount all the evils 
which civil laws and monarchical and republican govern- 
ments have produced in the world, I might exhibit a 
dreadful picture. Let us set before our eyes, on the one 
hand, the continual massacres of the kings and generals 
of the Greeks and Romans, and on the other, the destruc- 
tion of people and cities by the famous conquerors, Timur 
Beg and Jenghis Khan, who ravaged Asia, and we shall 
perceive that we owe to Christianity in government a cer- 
tain political law, and in war a certain law of nations, 
which allows to the conquered the great advantages of 
liberty, laws, wealth, and always religion, when the con- 
queror is not blind to his own interest.” 


268 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


THEOPHILUS PARSONS. 


Chief-Justice Parsons of the Supreme Court of Massa- 
chusetts, a jurist eminent for his legal knowledge, and 
whose opinions are of the highest authority, thus speaks 
of the superior excellence of the Christian religion and 
of its perfect adaptation to mankind: 

‘“‘Christianity had long been promulgated, its preten- 
sions and excellences well known, and its divine authority 
admitted. This religion was found to rest on the basis 
of immortal truth; to contain a system of morals adapted 
to man in all possible ranks and conditions, situations, 
and circumstances, by conforming to which he would be 
ameliorated and improved in all the relations of human 
life; and to furnish the most efficacious sanctions, by 
bringing to light a future state of retribution.” 


JOHN SELDEN. 


Selden, the distinguished jurist, whom Grotius styles 
“The glory of the English nation,” was a firm believer 
in the truths of the Bible. Hale states, that “he was a 
resolved ‘serious christian, and a great adversary to 
Hobbes’ errors.”” He was, moreover, a man of extensive 
information on all subjects, and one of the profoundest 
thinkers the world ever saw. ‘Toward the close of his 
splendid career, he made the remark, ‘ There is no book 
in the universe, upon which we can rest our souls ina 
dying moment, but the Bible.” 


JOSEPH STORY. 


Judge Story of the Supreme Court of the. United 
States, one of the most able and learned jurists of any 


Jurists. 269 


age or of any nation, speaks of the Christian religion in 
the most decided terms. He says: 

‘One of the beautiful traits of our municipal juris- 
prudence is, that Christianity is a part of the common 
law, from which it seeks the sanction of its. rights, and 
by which it endeavors to regulate its doctrines. And, 
notwithstanding the specious objections of one of our dis- 
tinguished statesmen, the boast is as true as it is beauti- 
ful. ‘There never has been a period in which the com- 
mon law did not recognize Christianity as lying at its 
foundation. For many ages it was almost exclusively 
administered by those who held its ecclesiatical digni- 
ties. It now repudiates every act done in violation of 
its duties of perfect obligation. It pronounces illegal 
every contract offensive to its morals.” 

In an Address on the History and Influence of the 
Puritans, while referring to certain anti-christian opin- 
ions “which would sap the foundations of our civil as 
well as religious liberties,” he exclaimed: ‘Let us 
cling with a holy zeal to the Bible, and the Bible only, 
as the religion of Protestants. Let us proclaim, with 
Milton, that neither traditions, nor councils, nor canons 
of visible church, much less edicts of any civil magis- 
trate or civil session, but the Scriptures only, can be 
the final judge or rule.” 


VATTEL, EMERICH. 
Vattel, in his work on International Law, a book that 
shows great talent and research, and that has gained a 


wide reputation, remarks: 
“ Piety and religion have an essential influence on the 


270 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


happiness of a nation.” “ Nothing is so proper as piety 
to strengthen virtue, and give it its due extent. By the 
word piety, I mean a disposition of soul that leads us to 
direct all our actions toward the Deity, and to en- 
deavor to please him in every thing we do. To the prac- 
tice of this virtue all mankind are indispensably obliged: 
it is the purest source of their felicity; and those who 
unite in civil society are under still greater obligations 
to practice it. A nation ought then to be pious. The 
superiors intrusted with the public affairs should con- 
stantly endeavor to deserve the approbation of their di- 
vine Master; and whatever they do in the name of the 
state, ought to be regulated by this grand view. The 
care of forming pious dispositions in all the people should 
be constantly one of the principal objects of their vigi- 
lance, and from this the state will derive very great ad- 
vantages. A serious attention to merit, in all our ac- 
tions, the approbation of an infinitely wise Being, can 
not fail of producing excellent citizens. Enlightened 
piety in the people is the firmest support of a lawful 
authority ; and, in the ruler’s heart, it is the pledge of 
the people’s safety, and excites their confidence.” 


AN, ENGLISH BARRISTER. 


An English barrister, who was accustomed to train 
students for the practice of law, and who was not him- 
self a religious man, was once asked why he put students, 
from the very first, to the study and analysis of the most 
difficult parts of sacred Scripture. ‘“ Because,” said he, 
“there is nothing else like it in any language for the 
development of mind and character.” 


Literary Writers. 271 


LITERARY WRITERS. 


JOSEPH ADDISON. 


In English literature, no writer has been more admired 
or eulogized than Addison. Dr. Johnson, the great critic, 
remarked: ‘‘ Whoever wishes to attain an English style, 
familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious, 
must give his days and nights to the volumes of Addi- 
son.” His fame as a prose writer rests chiefly on his 
Essays, published in the Spectator. One of his biogra- 
phers justly observes: ‘“‘As men of genius are, we 
think, to be estimated by the good they have produced 
in society, we may affirm with truth that few will stand 
higher in the scale of human excellence than the princi- 
pal author of the Spectator.” He left an unfinished 
work on the Evidences of the Christian Religion. He 
also composed several admirable hymns that are to be 
found in almost every hymn book published by every de- 
nomination of christians. The foliowing extracts are 
from Addison’s Essay on Infidelity Condemned : 

“‘A believer may be excused by the most hardened 
atheist, for endeavoring to make him a convert, because 
he does it with an eye to both their interests. The 
atheist is inexcusable who tries to gain over a believer, 
because he does not propose the doing himself or the 
believer any good by such a conversion. 

“The prospect of a future state is the secret comfort 
and refreshment of my soul: it is that which makes 
nature look gay about me: it doubles all my pleasures, 
and supports me under all my afilictions. I can look at 
disappointments and misfortunes, pain and sickness, 


272 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


death itself, and, what is worse than death, the loss of 
those who are dearest to me, with indifference, so long 
as I keep in view the pleasures of eternity, and the state 
of being in which there will be no fears nor apprehen- 
sions, palns nor sorrows, sickness nor separation. Why 
will any man be so impertinently officious as to tell me 
all this is only fancy and delusion? Is there any merit 
in being the messenger of ill news? If it is a dream, let 
me enjoy it, since it makes me both the happier and | 
better man. 

‘‘T must confess I do not know how to trust a man 
who believes neither heaven nor hell, or, in other words, 
a future state of rewards and punishments. Not only 
natural self-love, but reason directs us to promote our 
own interest above all things. It can never be for the 
interest of a believer to do me a mischief, because he is 
sure upon the balance of accounts to find himself a loser 
by it. On the contrary, if he considers his own welfare 
in his behavior toward me, it will lead him to do me all 
the good he can, and, at the same time, restrain him from 
doing me an injury. 

“Infidelity has been attacked with so good success of 
late years, that it is driven out of all its outworks. The 
atheist has not found his post tenable, and is therefore 
retired into deism, and a disbelief of revealed religion 
only. But the truth of it is, the greatest number of this 
set of men, are those who, for want of a virtuous educa- 
tion, or examining the grounds of religion, know so very 
little of the matter in question, that their infidelity is 
but another term for their ignorance. 

“As folly and inconsiderateness are the foundations of 
infidelity, the great pillars and supports of it are either 


Literary Writers. 273 


a vanity of appearing wiser than the rest of mankind, or 
an ostentation of courage in despising the terrors of 
another world, which have so great an influence on what 
they call weaker minds; or an aversion to a belief 
that must cut them off from many of those pleasures 
they propose to themselves, and fill them with remorse 
for many of those they have already tasted. 

“The great received articles of the Christian Religion 
have been so clearly proved, from the authority of that 
divine revelation in which they are delivered, that it is 
impossible for those who have ears to hear, and eyes to 
see, not to be convinced of them. But were it possible 
for any thing in the Christian Faith to be erroneous, I 
can find no ill consequences in adhering to it. The great 
points of the incarnation and sufferings of our Savior 
produce naturally such habits of virtue in the mind of 
man, that I say, supposing it were possible for us to be 
mistaken in them, the infidel himself must at least allow 
that no other system of religion could so effectually con- 
tribute to the heightening of morality. They give us 
great ideas of the dignity of human nature, and of the 
love which the Supreme Being bears to his creatures, 
and consequently engage us in the highest acts of duty 
toward our Creator, our neighbor, and ourselves. How 
many noble arguments has St. Paul raised from the chief 
articles of our religion, for the advancing of morality in 
its three great branches? ‘To give a single example in 
each kind: What can be a stronger motive to a firm trust 
and reliance on the mercies of our Maker, than the giv- 
ing his Son to suffer for us? What can make us love 
and esteem even the most inconsiderable of mankind 
more than the thought that Christ died for him? Or 


274 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


what dispose us to set a stricter guard upon the purity 
of our own hearts, than our being members of Christ, 
and a part of the society of which that immaculate person 
is the head? But these are only a specimen of those 
admirable inforcements of morality, which the Apostle 
has drawn from the history of our blessed Savior. 

“Tf our modern infidels consider these matters with 
that seriousness which they deserve, we should not see 
them act with such a spirit of bitterness, arrogance, and 
malice: they would not be raising such insignificant 
cavils, doubts, and scruplés, as may be started against 
every thing that is not capable of mathematical demon- 
stration, in order to unsettle the minds of the ignorant, 
disturb the public peace, subvert morality, and throw all 
things into confusion and disorder. 

‘Tf none of these reflections can have any influence 
upon them, there is one that perhaps may, because it is 
adapted to their vanity, by which they seem to be 
guided much more than their reason. I would therefore 
have them consider, that the wisest and best of men, in » 
all ages of the world, have been those who lived up to 
the religion of their SO and to the best lights they. 
had of the divine nature.” 

In another part of his writings, Addison speaks of the 
superior value of religion: 

‘‘The moral virtues, without religion, are but cold, 
lifeless, and insipid.” | 

‘True religion and virtue give a cheerful and hate 
turn to the Rane admit of all true pleasures, and even 
procure for us the highest.” 

Addison thus expresses his great admiration of the 
literary character of the Sacred Writings : 


Literary Writers. 275 


‘Homer has innumerable flights that Virgil was not 
able to reach, and in the Old Testament we find several 
passages more elevated and sublime than any in Homer.” 

“After perusing the Book of Psalms, let a judge of 
the beauties of poetry read a literal translation of Horace 
or Pindar, and he will find in these two last such an 
absurdity and confusion of style, with such a comparative 
poverty of imagination, as will make him sensible of the 
vast superiority of the Scripture style.” 

One of Addison’s forcible remarks is the following: 
“A few persons of an odious and despised country could 
not have filled the world with believers, had they not 
shown undoubted credentials from the divine person who 
sent them on such a message.” 

One of the most charming passages ever written by 
uninspired pen, is the following from Addison: “To 
look upon the soul as going on from strength to strength ; 
to consider that she is to shine forever with new acces- 
sions of glory, and brighten to all eternity; that she will 
be still adding virtue to virtue, and knowledge to knowl- 
edge,—carries in it something wonderfully agreeable to 
that ambition which is natural to the mind of man.” 

As it had been Addison’s business during his life to 
promote piety and morality, he was desirous that his 
death might contribute to the same noble end: therefore, 
when dying, he sent for the young Lord Warwick, his 
step-son, a nobleman of very irregular life, and perhaps 
of loose opinions, whom he had in vain endeavored to 
reclaim. Approaching the dying man, the youth said, 
“Dear sir, you have sent for me: I hope you have some 
commands: I shall hold them most sacred.” EKagerly 
grasping the young man’s hand, Addison softly said, 


276 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


“ See in what peace a Christian can die.””. He spoke and 
soon expired. 
JACOB BRYANT, A.M. 

Mr. J. Bryant, a scholar well acquainted with the 
writings of antiquity, and author of several works, one a 
Treatise on the Authenticity of the Scriptures and the 
Truth of the Christian Religion, says: 

“‘The more we search into the very ancient records 
of Rome or of Greece, the greater darkness and uncer- 
tainty ensue. None of them can stand the test of close 
examination. Upon a minute inspection, all becomes 
dark and doubtful, and often inconsistent. But when we 
encounter the Sacred Volume, even in parts of far higher 
antiquity, the deeper we go, the greater treasure we find. 
The various parts are so consistent, that they afford 
mutual illustration; and the more earnestly we look, the 
greater light accrues, and consequently the greater satis- 
faction.” 

HENRY LYTTON BULWER, G.C.B. 

Sir H. L. Bulwer, while actively engaged in filling 
various offices under the British Government, found time 
to write several works of a literary character. From one 
of them, the following beautiful extract is taken : 

“T can not believe that earth is man’s abiding-place. 
It can not be that our life is cast up by the ocean of 
eternity, to float a moment upon its waves, and then sink 
into nothingness. Else, why is it that the glorious 
aspirations which leap like angels from the temple of our 
hearts, are forever wandering abroad unsatisfied? Why 
is it that the rainbow and clouds come over us witha 
beauty that is not of earth, and then pass off, and leave 
us to muse on their faded loveliness? Why is it that the 


Literary Writers. 217 


stars, which hold their festival around the midnight 
throne, are set above the grasp of our limited faculties, 
forever mocking us with their unapproachable glory? 
And, finally, why is it that bright forms of human beauty 
are presented to our view, and then taken from us, leay- 
ing. the thousand streams of our affections to flow back 
in Alpine torrents upon our hearts? We are born for a 
higher destiny than that of earth. There is a realm 
where the rainbow never fades; wherc the stars will be 
spread out before us like islands that slumber on the 
ocean; and where the beings that pass before us like 
visions will stay in our presence forever.” 


THOMAS CARLYLE. 


Thomas Carlyle very early in life gave indication of 
great talents, and soon attracted public attention by his 
literary efforts. His writings, which are numerous and 
various, are distinguished, perhaps above all others, by a 
singular originality of thought, and a bold, eccentric free- 
dom of style. Yet amid all his peculiarities, he speaks 
with profound respect and high admiration of sacred 
things. 

Referring to the Bible, he exclaims: “A noble book! 
All men’s book! It is our first, oldest statement of the 
never-ending problem—man’s destiny, and God’s ways 
with him here on earth; and all in such free-flowing out- 
lines—grand in its sincerity, in its simplicity, in its onic 
ne igiss and repose of reconcilement.” 

Speaking of the beneficial influence of the Bible, and 
its satisfactory solution of the mystery of life, he says: 
“In the poorest cottage are books—is one Book, wherein 
for several thousands of years the spirit of man has 


278 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


found light, and nourishment, and an interpreting re- 
sponse to whatever is deepest in him: wherein still, to 
this day, for the eye that will look well, the mystery of 
existence reflects itself, if not resolved, yet revealed and 
prophetically emblemed; if not to the satisfying of the 
outward sense, yet to the opening of the inward sense, 
which is the far grander result.” 

Referring to the divine law, he remarks: ‘To see 
God's own law universally acknowledged as it stands in 
the holy written Book—to see this, or the true unwearied 
aim and struggle toward this, is a thing worth living and 
dying for.” 

Concerning the Book of Job, he says: ‘‘T call that, 
apart from all theories about it, one of the grandest 
things ever written by man. A noble book! Such liv- 
ing likenesses were never since drawn. Sublime sorrow, 
sublime reconciliation ; oldest choral melody, as of the 
heart of mankind; so soft and great, as the summer mid- 
night, as the world with its seas and stars. There is 
nothing written, I think, of equal literary merit.” 

He thus’ speaks of Jesus Christ: “Jesus of Nazareth, 
our divinest symbol! Higher has the human thought 
never reached.” “A symbol of quite perennial, infinite 
character, whose significance will ever demand to be 
anew inquired into, and anew made manifest.” ‘ He 
walked in Judea eighteen hundred years ago: his sphere- 
melody, flowing in wild and native tones, took captive 
the ravished souls of men, and being of a truth sphere- 
melody, still flows and sounds, though now with thousand- 
fold accompaniments and rich symphonies, through all 
our hearts, and modulates and divinely leads them.” 

Referring to the excellency of religion, he styles it: 


Literary Writers. 279 


“An everlasting lodestar, that beams the brighter in the 
heavens, the darker here on earth grows the night.” 

Speaking of the necessity of its personal influence, he 
says, ‘If there be not a religious element in the rela- 
tions of men, sucn relations are miserable, and doomed 
to ruin.” 

In a letter written by Carlyle in 1869 to Mr. Erskine, 
he says: 

““] was agreeably surprised by the sight of your hand- 
writing again, so kind, so welcome! The letters are as 
firm and honestly distinct as ever: the mind, too, in spite 
of its frail environments, as clear, plump up, calmly ex- 
pectant asin the best days. Right so! So be it with 
us all till we quit this dim sojourn, now grown so lonely 
to us, and our change come. ‘Our Father, who art in 
heaven: hallowed be thy name: Thy will be done:’ what 
else can we say? ‘The other night, in my sleepless toss- 
ings about, which were growing more and more miser- 
able, these words, that brief and grand prayer, came 
strangely into my mind, with an altogether new em- 
phasis; as if written shining for me in mild, pure splen- 
dor on the black bosom of night there; when I, ag it 
were, read them word by word—with a sudden check to 
my imperfect wanderings, with a sudden softness of com- 
posure which was much unexpected. I never felt before 
how intensely the voice of man’s soul it is—the inmost 
aspiration of all that is high and pious in poor human 
nature, right worthy to be recommended with an ‘After 
this manner pray ye.’” 

A correspondent of the Hartford Courant, (New Eng- 
land,) who paid a visit to Carlyle in the eighty-second 
year of his age, gives the following as the expression of 


280 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Buble. 


his views in regard to a certain class of modern scientists 
in England: 

“So-called literary and scientific classes in England 
now proudly give themselves to protoplasm, origin of 
species, and the like, to prove that God did not build the 
universe. I have known three generations of the Dar- 
wins, grand-father, father, and son: atheists all.. The 
brother of the famous naturalist, a quiet man, who lives 
not far from here, told me that among his grand-father’s 
effects, he found a seal engraved with this legend: 
‘Omnia ex conchis, every thing from a clam-shell. I 
saw the naturalist not many months ago, and told him 
that I had read his ‘Origin of Species’ and other 
books: that he had by no means satisfied me that men 
were descended from monkeys, but had gone far toward 
persuading me that he and his so-called scientific brethren 
had brought the present generation of Englishmen very 
near to monkeys. A good sort of man is this Darwin, 
and well meaning, but with very little intellect. Ah, it 
+s a sad and terrible thing to see nigh a whole generation 
of men and women, professing to be cultivated, looking 
around in a purblind fashion, and finding no God in the 
universe. I suppose it is a reaction from the reign of 
cant and hollow pretense, professing to believe what in 
fact they do not believe. And this is what we have got: 
all things from frog spawn: the gospel of dirt the order 
oftheday. The older I erow—and I stand upon the brink 
of eternity—the more comes back to me the sentence in 
the Catechism, which I learned when a child, and the 
fuller and deeper its meaning becomes: ‘What is the 
chief end of man? To glorify God, and enjoy him for- 
ever. No gospel of dirt, teaching that men have de- 


Literary Writers. 981 


scended from frogs through monkeys, can ever set that 
aside.” 

On a certain occasion, Carlyle was in company with a 
number of so-called philosophers and scientific men, who 
were airing their opinions very freely, chiefiy on subjects 
referring to religion. The theory of evolution had been 
asserted with much confidence, and under the supposi- 
tion that he was a sympathizer with this theory in its 
most ultra atheistical form, and not at all fettered by 
religious scruples, he was challenged to deliver his opin- 
ion as to Darwinism. Gathering himself up, for he was 
then in his old age, and speaking in a tone that silenced 
laughter, he replied, “‘ Gentlemen, you make man a little 
higher than the tadpoles: I hold with the royal Psalmist, 
‘Thou madest him a little lower than the angels.’ ” 

A short time before the death of Carlyle, he was in- 
vited by the students of the University of Edinburg, 
Scotland, to deliver a valedictory address before them, 
but in consequence of his extreme old age he had to de- 
cline. In the letter which he wrote in reply occurs the 
following most excellent advice: ‘ Bid them (the stu- 
dents) in my name, if they still love me, fight the good 
fight, and quit themselves like men in the warfare to 
which they are as if conscript and consecrated, and which 
lies ahead. Tell them to consult the Eternal Oracles, 
(not yet inaudible, nor ever to become so, when worthily 
inquired of,) and to disregard nearly altogether, in com- 
parison, the temporary noises, menacings, and deliriums. 
May they love wisdom, as wisdom: if she is to yield her 
treasures, she must be loved piously, valiantly, humbly, 
beyond life itself, or the prizes of life, with all one’s 

24 


282 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


heart and all one’s soul: in that case, I will say again, 
and not in any other case, it shall be well with them. 
Adieu, my young friends, a long adieu.” 


CALEB ¢. COLTON. 


Colton, who wrote an admirable book entitled, Lacon, 
consisting of valuable truths expressed in brief sentences, 
makes the laconic remark: ‘All who have been great 
and good without Christianity, would have been much 
greater and better with it.” 


VICTOR COUSIN. 


Cousin, a distinguished French student and author, 
has been regarded by some as the founder of systematic 
eclecticism in modern philosophy. It is said of him that 
early in life he threw himself heartily into the reaction 
against the sensualistic philosophy and literature of the 
eighteenth century ; also, that after acquainting himself 
fully with the different systems of philosophy, he seemed 
more disposed, toward the close of his splendid career, 
to regard philosophy in its religious and zsthetic rela- 
tions. In the following quotation he utters a just eulogy 
on the Sacred Oracles: | 

“Young men pursuing their course of rhetoric or phi- 
losophy, would find the exposition of the monuments of 
Christianity a source of solid and useful instruction, 
When they have thus spent some years in intimate con- 
verse with the Holy Scriptures, it will be as impos- 
sible to turn Christianity into ridicule before them, with 
its pure morality, its sublime philosophy, its glorious his- 
tory, as to make them think the genius of Homer and 


Interary Writers. 283 


Virgil insignificant, and Rome and Greece without grand- 
eur or interest.” 


ANNE LEFEVRE DACIER. 


Madam Dacier, in the preface to her translation of 
Homer, says: 

“The books of the Prophets and the Psalms, even in 
the Vulgate, are all full of such passages, as the greatest 
poet in the world could not put into verse, without losing 
much of their majesty and pathos.” 


JONATHAN DYMOND. 
Dymond, in his Essays on the Principles of Morality, 


presents, in a clear manner, the reasons why some men 
are drawn into infidelity. He remarks: 

“The grounds upon which skeptics build their disbe- 
lief of Christianity are commonly very slight. The num- 
ber is comparatively few whose opinions are the result 
of any tolerable degree of investigation. They embraced 
skeptical notions through the means which they now take 
of diffusing them amongst others—not by arguments, but 
jests; not by objections to the historical evidence of 
Christianity, but by conceits and witticisms; .not by ex- 
amining the nature of religion as it was delivered by its 
Founder, but by exposing the conduct of those who pro- 
fess it. To disbelieve the religion of Christianity upon 
grounds which shall be creditable to the understanding 
involves no light task. A man must investigate and 
scrutinize; he must examine the credibility of testimony ; 
he must weigh and compare evidence; he must inquire 
into the reality of historical facts. If, after rationally 
doing all this, he disbelieves in Christianity, be it so. I 


284 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


think him, doubtless, mistaken, but I do not think him 
puerile and credulous. But he who professes skepticism 
without any of this species of inquiry, is credulous and 
puerile indeed; and such most skeptics actually are. As 
Gisborne remarks, ‘ Concerning unbelievers and doubters 
of every class, one observation may almost universally 
be made with truth, that they are little acquainted with 
the nature of the christian religion, and still less with 
the evidence by which it is supported.’ 

‘“¢ How, then, does it happen that those who affect skep- 
ticism are so ambitious to make their skepticism known? 
Because it is a short and easy road to distinction; be- 
cause it affords a cheap means of gratifying vanity. To 
‘rise above vulgar prejudices and superstitions —‘ to en- 
tertain enlarged and liberal opinions,’ are phrases of great 
attraction, especially to young men; and how shall they 
show that they rise above vulgar prejudices, how shall 
they so easily manifest the enlargement of their views, 
as by rejecting a system which all their neighbors agree 
to be true? They feel important to themselves, and that 
they are objects of curiosity, not on account of their own 
qualities, but on account of the greatness of that which 
they contemn. I know not that an intelligent person 
should be advised to reason with these puny assailants; 
their notions and their conduct are not the result of rea- 
soning. What they need is the humiliation of vanity and 
the exposure of folly. A few simple interrogations 
would expose their folly ; and for the purposes of humilia- 
tion, simply pass them by. ‘The sun that shines upon 
them makes them look bright and large. Let reason and 
truth withdraw their rays, and these seeming planets will 
quickly disappear in silence and in darkness. 


Literary Writers. 285 


“More contemptible motives to the profession of in- 
fidelity can not perhaps exist, but there are some which 
are more detestable. Hartley says that ‘the strictness 
and purity of the Christian religion in respect to licen- 
tiousness, is probably the chief thing which makes vicious 
men first fear and hate, and then vilify and oppose it.’ 

‘“‘Whether, therefore, we regard the motives which lead 
to skepticism, or the grounds upon which it is commonly 
founded, there is surely much reason for an ingenious 
young person to hold in contempt the jests, and pleasant- 
ries, and sophistries, respecting revelation with which he 
may be assailed.” 


EDWARD EVERETT, D.C.L. 


Few men have had so remarkable a public career ag 
Edward Everett—a career that embraced the stations of 
minister at the Brattle Street Church, Boston; professor 
of Greek at Harvard; editor of the North American Re- 
view ; representative in National Congress for ten suc- 
cessive years, from Middlesex; Governor of Massachu- 
setts for four years; Minister to England; President of 
Harvard College ; Secretary of State, and United States 
Senator. His orations and speeches, as has been re- 
marked, constitute the most voluminous, scholarly, and 
rhetorical productions of the sort to be found in Ameri- 
can literature. They are one hundred and eighty-six in 
number, and are extraordinary in the variety of subjects 
they treat of, in the familiarity they evince with those 
subjects, in the lucid statement, the exquisite polish and 
electric vigor of diction. Whenever he speaks of re- 
ligion and the Bible, it is always with the highest admira- 


286 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


tion and profoundest reverence. In his Address on the 
General Diffusion of Knowledge, he says: 

‘Nothing is more certain, than that the diffusion of 
knowledge is friendly to the benign influence of religion 
and morals. Knowledge is the faithful ally both of natu- 
ral and revealed religion. Revelation, in all ages, has 
called to its aid the meditations and researches of pious 
and learned men; and, most assuredly, at every period, 
for one man of learning, superficial or profound, who has 
turned the weapons of science against religion or morals, 
hundreds have consecrated their labors to their defense. 
Before we permit ourselves to be agitated with painful 
doubts, as to the connection of a diffusion of knowledge 
with religion and morals, let us remember, that, in pro- 
portion to the ignorance of a community, is the ease 
with which their belief can be shaken, and their assent 
obtained to the last specious delusion of the day, till you 
may finally get down to a degree of ignorance, on which 
reason and Scripture are alike lost.” 

In his Address on the Importance of Education in a 
Republic, Everett says: “Itis the peculiarity of Chris- 
tianity, as distinguished from other religions, that it_ad- 
dresses the understanding as well as the heart. It com- 
mands us to search'the Scriptures; to be ready to give 
a reason for the faith that is in us. We are blessed 
with a faith which calls into action the whole intellectual 
man, which prescribes a reasonable service, challenges 
the investigation of its evidences, and which, in the doc- 
trine of immortality, invests the mind of man with a por- 
tion of the dignity of Divine Intelligence. In whatever 
other respects the advantages of education might be dis- 
pensed with, when we consider man as a religious and 


Literary Writers. 2387 


immortal being, it is a shocking spectacle, to see him 
growing up, dark and benighted, ignorant of himself, of 
his duties, and his destination.” 


JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE. 


Goethe was one of the most gifted and accomplished 
geniuses of the eighteenth century. One of his biogra- 
phers remarks: “It is as a poet, no doubt, that this re- 
markable man is generally known and recognized; but 
it is not as a poet only that a just measure can be taken 
of his intellectual caliber. Itisas a poet thinker, critic, 
and original observer of nature, all combined in one ad- 
mirable harmony, that his rare excellence consists.” 
And yet, with all his remarkable gifts and attainments, 
he held the Divine Oracles in high estimation. How 
strong is the following utterance: 

‘It is a belief in the Bible, the fruits of deep medita- 
tion, which has served me as the guide of my moral and 
literary life. Ihave found it a capital safely invested, 
and richly productive of interest.” 

Goethe also says, of the life of Christ: “I esteem 
the Gospels to be thoroughly genuine, for there shines forth 
from them the reflected splendor of a sublimity, pro- 
ceeding from the person of Jesus Christ, of so divine a 
kind, as only the Divine could ever have manifested 
upon earth.” 

Goethe likewise avows his belief in the soul’s immor- 
tality: ‘I am fully convinced that the soul is inde- 
structible, and that its activity will continue through 
eternity. It is like the sun, which, to our eyes, seems 
to set at night; but it has in reality only gone to diffuse 
its light elsewhere.” 


288 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


WILLIAM HAZULITT. 


Hazlitt, a distinguished English essayist and miscel- 
Janeous writer, was a man of varied information. His 
fame rests upon his essays, which received great com- 
mendation alike from the critics and the reading public. 
Speaking of the great moral revolution of the fifteenth 
century, he remarks: : 

“The translation of the Bible was the chief engine in 
the great work. It threw open, by a secret spring, the 
rich treasures of religion and morality, which had been 
there locked up as in a shrine. It revealed the visions 
of the prophets, and conveyed the lessons of inspired 
teachers to the meanest of the people. It gave them a 
common interest in a common cause. Their hearts 
burned within them as they read. It gave a mind to the 
people, by giving them common subjects of thought and 
feeling. It cemented their union of character and senti- 
ment; it created endless diversity and collision of opin- 
ion. They found objects to employ their faculties, and 
a motive in the magnitude of the consequences attached 
to them, to exert the utmost eegerness in the pursuit 
of truth, and the most daring intrepidity in maintain- 
ing it.” | 
JOHANN GOTTFRIED VON HERDER. 

Herder, a distinguished writer on religion and the- 
ology, literature and art, and philosophy and history, 
says: “ Jesus Christ is, in the noblest and most perfect 
sense, the realized idea of humanity.” 


VICTOR M. HUGO. 
Victor Hugo, a popular French author, wrote on a 


Laterary Writers. 289 


great variety of subjects. His belief in the immortality 
of the soul was firm, and was expressed with warmth and 
enthusiasm, as the following extracts abundantly show: 
“It would not be worth while to live if we were to die 
entirely. That which alleviates labor, and sanctifies toil, 
is to have before us the vision of a better world through 
the darkness of this life. That world is to me more real 
than the chimera which we devour, and which we call 
life. It is forever before my eyes. It is the supreme 
certainty of my reason, as it is the supreme consolation 
of my soul.” 
_ “TJ feel in myself the future life. I am like a forest 
which has been more than once cut down. The new 
shoots are stronger and livelier than ever. I am rising, 
I know, toward the sky. The sunshine is on my head. 
The earth gives me its generous sap, but Heaven lights 
me with the reflection of unknown worlds. You say the 
soul is nothing but the resultant of bodily powers. Why, 
then, is my soul the more luminous when my bodily 
powers begin to fail? Winter is on my head and eternal 
spring is in my heart. Then I breathe, at this hour, the 
fragrance of the lilacs, the violets, and the roses, as at 
twenty years. The nearer I approach the end, the 
plainer I hear around me the immortal symphonies of 
the worlds which invite me. It is marvelous, yet simple.” 
“It is a fairy tale, and it is history. For half a cen- 
tury I have been writing my thoughts in prose, verse, 
history, philosophy, drama, romance, tradition, satire, 
ode, song—I have tried all. But I feel that I have not 
said the thousandth part of what is in me. When I go 
down to the grave I can say, like so many others, ‘I 
25 


290 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


have finished my day’s work ;’ but I can not say, ‘I have 
finished my life.” My day’s work will begin again the 
next morning. The tomb is not a blind alley: itis a, 
thoroughfare. It closes in the twilight to open with the 
dawn. I improve every hour, because I love this world 
as my fatherland.” 

“My work is only a beginning. My monument is 
hardly above its foundation. I would be glad to see it 
mounting and mounting forever. The thirst for the 
infinite proves infinity.” 


SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D. 


Amongst literary writers, Dr. Samuel Johnson stands 
one of the first. His intellect was all-vigorous, and his 
powers of investigation and criticism were of the highest 
order. Probably no author had greater influence during 
his lifetime, and few, if any, have been more admired by 
posterity. While he was earnestly devoted to general 
literature, he had, at the same time, the profoundest 
reverence for religion and the Bible, as the following 
quotations show : 

“The Christian religion is one that dares to be under- 
stood; that offers itself to the search of the inquisitive, 
and to the inspection of the severest and most awak- 
ened reason.” 

“Ag to the Christian religion, besides the strong evi- 
dence which we have for it, there is a balance in its favor 
from the number of great men who have been convinced 
of its truth after a serious consideration of the question. 
Grotius was an acute man, a lawyer, a man accustomed 
to examine evidence, and he was convinced. Grotius 
;was not a recluse, but a man of the world, who certainly 


Literary Writers. 291 


had no bias on the side of religion. Sir Isaac Newton 
set out an infidel, and came to be a very firm believer.” 

“When the obligations of morality are taught, let the 
sanctions of Christianity never be forgotten ; by which it 
will be shown that they give strength and luster to each 
other: religion will appear to be the voice of reason, and 
morality will be the will of God.” 

At one time Dr. Johnson was asked why some literary 
men were infidels. His prompt reply was, “ Because 
they are ignorant of the contents of the Bible.” 

When on his death-bed, a young man paid him a final 
visit; and the subject of religion being introduced, the 
Doctor addressed him with great solemnity: “Young 
man, attend to the voice of one who has possessed a cer- 
tain degree of fame in the world, and who will shortly 
appear before his Maker: read the Bible every day of 
your life.” 

To Mr. Hoole, he remarked, only a few days before 
his death: ‘I conjure you to read and meditate on the 
Bible: do not throw it aside for a play or a novel. I 
regret that I myself have lived in so great negligence of 
religion and the Bible, and have often reflected what I 
could hereafter say when asked why I had not read it 
more attentively.” | 
JOSEPH JOUBERT. 

Joseph Joubert, a French essayist, remarks: “It is 
impossible to speak against Christianity without anger, 
and to speak for it without love.” 


THEODORE S. JOUFFROY. 


The distinguished French philosopher, Jouffroy, in his 
Essay on the Present State of Humanity, shows very 


292 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


clearly the superior power and efficiency of the Christian 
Religion over all others. He discusses the merits of the 
three principal systems, Christianity, Brahminism, and 
Mohammedanism, regarding Buddhism as but a form of 
Brahminism, from which it originally proceeded. The 
following is an outline of his argument: 

“We may regard the world as subject to the attrac- 
tion of three different forms, or three systems of civiliza- 
tion: Christianity, Brahminism, and Mohammedanism. 
A real religion is nothing but a complete solution of the 
sreat questions which interest humanity, that is to say, 
of the destiny of man, of his origin, of his future condi- 
tion, of his relation to God and to his fellow men. Now, 
it is by virtue of the opinions which different nations 
profess on these questions, that they establish a mode of 
worship, a government and laws; that they adopt certain 
manners, habits and thoughts; that they aspire to a cer- 
tain order of things, which they regard as the ideal of the 
True, the Beautiful, the Right, and the Good, in this 
world. The true and radical difference between savage 
and civilized nations, consists in the fact that the former — 
have only crude and vague ideas on the great questions 
which interest Humanity, so that these ideas could not 
be brought into a sufficiently, precise form for the con- 
struction of a system. . 

“Tf in any part of the earth there were a great mass 
of savage nations in contact, as there was in the north 
and in the centre of Asia, during the fourth century, we 
might admit the possibility that a system suddenly appear- 
ing in the bosom of this mass, could gather around it the 
people who composed it, and create a fourth civilization, 


Literary Writers. 293 


a fourth center of attraction. But such a mass does not 
exist. 

‘“We may then regard those three systems of civiliza- 
tion as the only systems which can exert an influence on 
the destinies of. the world. To those systems, therefore, 
we must give our attention. What are their respective 
forces, the degrees of their vigor and attractive power ? 

‘Now it is proved by facts that the Christian civiliza- 
tion is the only one of the three which is endowed at the 
present day with an expansive power. It is in truth the 
only one which makes any progress at the expense of the 
others, and which gains savage tribes to civilization. 

“Brahminism has few or no savages to civilize. Its 
dominion extends to the eastern borders of Asia, and on 
the west it approaches Mohammedanism and Christianity. 
It is therefore in contact with the other systems of civili- 
zation. And as it forms no foreign colonies, it remains 
unknown to savages of other countries. Jt will accord- 
ingly have no share in the mass of men who are yet to 
be civilized. 

‘“Mohammedanism also forms no colonies: like Brah- 
minism, it keeps at home: the time when it subdued 
nations with the sword is past. Now, on the east toward 
Asia, on the north and on the west toward Europe, it is 
arrested by Brahminism and Christian civilization. It 
comes in contact with savages only on the south, toward 
the centre of Africa. We know not whether it continues 
to extend in that direction, or whether the immense con- 
quests which it formerly made are still increasing; but 
we may affirm with certainty, that if it does continue to ' 
make conquests among savage tribes, it is the mere re- 
sult of contact, and not at all of design; for in the pres- 


294 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


ent day we do not discern in Mohammedanism the 
slightest trace of the spirit of proselytism which it once 
possessed, and which is now so ardently cherished by 
Christian nations. 

‘Tf we now turn our eyes to Christianity, we perceive 
that, with the exception of the barbarians of Africa, (and 
even these it is on the point of disputing with Moham- 
medanism,) it holds in its hand all the savages of the 
rest of the world. There is hardly an island of any 
magnitude where it has not taken a station on its coast, 
and visited with its ships; and by degrees the population 
of every island of the ocean will fall under its system. 
By holding the coast of New Holland (Australia,) it sur- 
rounds with a thread which they can not escape from, all 
the tribes of the fifth world—tribes the most barbarous 
which have yet been discovered. It will follow the same 
course there which it has followed in America. 

“Tf we consider the conquests over one another which 
are made, or should be made by the three systems, we 
find new proof of the expansive power which is possessed 
exclusively by Christian civilization. Neither Brahmin- 
ism nor Mohammedanism penetrates, or attempts to pen- 
etrate, into Christian possessions. Christianity and its 
civilization every-where advance with ardor, and with de- 
liberate purpose, into the domains of Brahma and 
Mohammed. They openly meditate their conquest. The 
Bible and Missionary Societies are instituted for this ex- 
press purpose. But there are two levers of still greater 
power in operation to detach ancient Asia‘ from its an- 
cient doctrines. These levers are Russia and England. 
While Russia acts upon Asia on the north, from the Ural 
mountains to the extremity of Kamtchatka, and opens a 


Literary Writers. 295 


large third of this vast country to our civilization, Eng- 
land invades it in the south, and causes our power to 
penetrate into the very center of Brahminism. 

‘“‘ Now this superiority of power is a new circumstance, 
which appears to give Christianity brighter and brighter 
promise of the conquest of the world. 

‘The Christian system is making progress, and rapid 
progress, while the other two are decaying; the nations 
which compose it are every day becoming more united, 
and growing into a powerful aggregate, which nothing 
on earth is able to resist. It is impossible for the Chris- 
tian system to be absorbed in either of the others; on the 
contrary, it is beginning to absorb them both, or, at least, 
to reduce the territory which they occupy; and there is 
every reason to believe that these conquests will soon go 
on with increased rapidity. We can not, then, avoid the 
conclusion, that if the Christian system of civilization be 
not destroyed by internal defect, it is destined to gain 
possession of the earth. Its future condition involves 
the future condition of the world.” 


DR. MCCULLOCH. 


The superior excellence and moral power of the Bible 
are forcibly exhibited by Dr. McCulloch, in a series of 
questions and statements that can not fail to carry con- 
viction to every candid mind. He asks: 

“How comes it that this volume, composed by rude 
men in a rude age, when art and science were but in their 
childhood, has exerted more influence on the human 
mind and on the social system, than all other books put 
together? Whence comes it that this book has achieved 
such marvelous changes in the opinions of mankind, has 


296 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


banished idol-worship, has abolished infanticide, has put 
down polygamy and divorce, has exalted the condition of 
woman, raised the standard of public morality, created 
for families that blessed thing, a Christian home, and 
caused its other triumphs by causing benevolent institu- 
tions, open and expansive, to spring up, as with the 
wand of enchantment? What sort of a book is this, 
that even the winds and waves of human passion obey it? _ 
What other engine of social improvement has operated 
so long, and yet lost none of its virtue? Since it ap- 
peared, many boasted plans of amelioration have been 
tried, and have failed; many codes of jurisprudence 
have arisen, run their course, and expired; empire after 
empire has been launched on the tide of time, and gone 
down, leaving no trace on the waters. But this book is 
still going about doing good, leavening society with its 
holy principles, cheering the sorrowful with its consola- 
tions, strengthening the tempted, encouraging the peni- 
tent, calming the troubled spirit, and smoothing the pil- 
low of death? Can such a book be the offspring of 
human genius? Does not the vastness of its effects 
demonstrate the excellency of the power to be of God.” 


MARY W. MONTAGU. 
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu was one of England’s 


admired writers. Her productions are various. It has 
been said that in epistolary composition she had few 
equals, and scarcely a superior. Her regard for religion 
is expressed in the following decided language: “ Nobody 
can deny that religion is a comfort to the distressed, a 
cordial to the sick, and sometimes a restraint upon the 
wicked. Whoever, therefore, wants to argue, or laugh it 


Literary Writers. 297 


out of the world, without giving an equivalent for it, 
ought to be treated as a common enemy.” 


HANNAH MORE. 


Hannah More was one of the most distinguished female 
writers of England. She was early introduced to liter- 
ary chaiacters in London, and wrote for the stage; but 
she became a decided christian, and retired to the coun- 
try, where she wrote several works of a religious nature. 
From her excellent treatise, entitled Practical Piety, we 
select the following : 

‘Christianity bears all the marks of a divine original. 
It came down from heaven, and its gracious purpose is 
to carry us up thither. Its author is God. It was fore- 
told from the beginning by prophecies, which grew 
clearer and brighter as they approached the period of 
their accomplishment. It was confirmed by miracles, 
which continued till the religion they illustrated was es- 
tablished. It was ratified by the blood of its Author. 
Its doctrines are pure, sublime, consistent. Its precepts 
are just and holy. Its worship is spiritual. Its service 
is reasonable, and rendered practicable by the offers of 
Divine aid to human weakness. It is sanctioned by the 
promise of eternal happiness to the faithful, and the 
threat of everlasting misery to the disobedient. It had 
no collusion with power, for power sought to crush it. 
It could not be in any league with the world, for it set 
out by declaring itself the enemy of the world: it re- 
probated its maxims, it showed the vanity of its glories, 
the danger of its riches, and the emptiness of its 
pleasures.” 

In the following extract, Miss More strikingly shows 


oe 


298 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


the comparative ease and pleasure derived from religion, 
when contrasted with the labor and toil of sin. ‘ The 
martyrs to vice far exceed the martyrs to virtue, both 
in endurance and in number. So blinded are we to our 
passions, that we suffer more to insure perdition than 
salvation. Religion does not forbid the rational enjoy- 
ments of life, as sternly as avarice forbids them. She 
does not require such sacrifices of ease, as ambition ; or 
such renunciation of quiet, as pride. She does not 
murder sleep, like dissipation; or health, hke intemper- 
ance; or scatter wealth, like extravagance or gambling. 
She does not embitter life, like discord; or shorten it, 
like dueling; or harrow it, like revenge. She does not 
impose more vigilance, than suspicion; more anxiety, 
than selfishness; or half as many mortifications, as 
vanity.” 4 
FRIEDRICH MAX MULLER. 

Max Miiller, a distinguished modern scholar, whose 
mind is not biased by any theological leanings, thus 
speaks of the monotheistic idea, and its divine origin: 
‘¢ While all nations over the earth have developed a re- 
ligious tendency which acknowledged a higher than 
human power in the universe, Israel is the only one 
which has risen to the grandeur of conceiving this power 
as the One, Only, Living God.” “If we are asked how 
it was that Abraham possessed not only the primitive 
conception of the Divinity, as He had revealed Himself 
to all mankind, but passed, through the denial of all 
other gods, to the knowledge of the One God, we are 
content to answer that it was by a special Divine Reve- 
lation.” 


Literary Writers. 299 


JEAN P. F. RICHTER. 


Richter, a favorite author of the Germans, wrote on a 
variety of subjects, one of which was the immortality of 
the soul. His opinion of Christ is expressed in language 
the most forcible and elevated. He remarks: ‘The 
life of Christ concerns Him who being the holiest among 
the mighty, the mightiest among the holy, lifted, with 
his pierced hand, empires off their hinges, and turned 
the stream of centuries out of its channel, and still 
governs the ages.” 


JOHN RUSKIN, LL.D. 


Amongst the illustrious authors of the present cen- 
tury, Ruskin ranks deservedly high. A critic observes: 
“No writer has done so much to expose the false in 
art, and to illustrate the philosophy of the beautiful and 
the sublime in God’s universe, as John Ruskin. A close 
observer, alike microscopic and telescopic in his seeing— 
a profound, original thinker, he is regarded in his special 
department as a great creating mind. A devout spirit 
animates and inspires the man, and renders luminous his 
writings.” It has been saidof him: ‘He furnishes his 
readers with a lens through which all natural objects are 
glorified: the sky assumes new beauty; the clouds are 
decked with wondrous magnificence ; and even cach in- 
dividual tree excites curiosity and intense admiration.” 
From the writings of Ruskin, we select a few extracts, 
in a condensed form, on the love of nature as sanctioned 
by the Inspired Writers. 

‘The Bible is distinguished from all other early litera- 
ture by its delight in natural imagery ; and the dealings 


300 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bable. 


of God with his people are calculated peculiarly to 
awaken this sensibility within them. 

“The books of the Old Testament are thus prepared 
for an everlasting influence over humanity ; and, finally, 
Christ himself, setting the concluding example to the 
conduct and thoughts of men, spends nearly his whole 
life in the fields, the mountains, or the small country 
villages of Judea. 

“The whole force of education, until very lately, has 
been directed, in every possible way, to the destruction 
of the love of nature. The only knowledge which has 
been considered essential among us is that of words, and, 
the next after it, of the abstract sciences ; while every 
liking shown by children for simple natural history has 
been either violently checked, (if it took an inconvenient 
form for the housemaids,) or else scrupulously limited to 
hours of play; so that it has really been impossible for 
any child earnestly to study the works of God but against 
its conscience; and the love of nature has become in- 
herently the characteristic of truants and idlers. 

‘We shall find that the love of nature, wherever it has 
existed, has been a faithful and sacred element of human 
feeling; that is to say, supposing all circumstances other- 
wise the same with respect to two individuals, the one 
who loves nature most will always be found to have mo e 
faith in God than the other. 

“The love of nature, I believe, is precisely the most 
healthy element which belongs to us, and that out of it, 
cultivated in earnestness and asa duty, results will spring 
of an importance at present inconceivable; and lights 
arise, which, for the first time in man’s history, will reveal 
to him the true nature of his life, the true field for his 


Literary Writers. 301 


energies, and the true relations between him and his 
Maker. 

“The delights of horse-rading and hunting, of assem- 
blies in the night instead of the day; of costly and 
wearisome music; of costly and burdensome dress; of 
chagrined contention for place, or power, or wealth, or the 
eyes of the multitude; and all the endless occupation 
without purpose, and idleness without rest, of our vulgar 
world, are not, it seems to me, enjoyments we need be 
ambitious to communicate. And all real and wholesome 
enjoyments possible to man have been just as possible to 
him since first he was made of the earth as they are now; 
and they are possible to him chiefly in quiet. To watch the 
corn grow and the blossoms set; to draw hard breath over 
the plowshare or spade; to read, to think, to love, to hope, 
to pray—these are the things Hint make men Herne: they 
have always had the power of doing this: they never 
will have power to do more. 

“The time will come, I do verily believe, when the 
world will understand that God paints the clouds and 
shapes the moss fibers, that men may be happy in seeing 
him at his work, and that in resting quietly beside him, 
and watching his working; and, according to the power 
he has communicated to ourselves, and the guidance he 
grants, in carrying out his purposes of peace and charity 
among all his creatures, are the only real happinesses that 
ever were, or will be, possible to mankind 


DANIEL K. SANDFORD, D.C.L. 
Sir Daniel Sandford, a writer of cultivated mind and 
classic taste, has spoken in the most decided terms of the 
excellence of the Sacred Scriptures, even regarding 


302 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


them as inimitable literary productions. He says: 
“That any one who has studied the poetry, history, and 
philosophy of the Hebrews, even merely as specimens 
of composition, should lightly esteem them, is impossi- 
ble. In lyric flow and fire, in crushing force, in majesty 
that seems still to echo the awful sounds once heard 
beneath the thunder-clouds of Mount Sinai, the poetry 
of the ancient Scriptures is the see superb that ever 
burned within the breast of man.” 


ANNE LOUISE G. N. DE STAEL. 


Amongst female writers, no one is more distinguished 
than Madame de Stael. In fact, some of her works would 
be a credit to any man of any age or any nation. For 
soundness of reasoning, clearness of statement, beauty 
of illustration, and vigor of style, she has seldom been 
equaled, and never excelled. Her Influence of Litera- 
ture upon Society, has commanded universal admiration. 
Speaking of the establishment of the Christian religion 
in the Roman empire, she says: 

‘It has been asserted by some writers that the Chris- 
tian religion was the cause of the degradation of letters 
and of philosophy; but I am fully convinced that the 
Christian religion, at the period of its establishment, was 
indispensably necessary to civilization, and to the uniting 
of the spirit of the North with the manners of the Kast; 
and I am further of opinion, that the religious contem- 
plations produced by Christianity, to whatever object 
they might be applied, developed the faculties of the 
mind, and prepared it for the reception of metaphysics, 
morality and science.” 

“The Christian religion, having a legislator, whose 


Luterary Writers. 303 


grand aim was the perfection of morals, and to unite, 
under the same banner, nations of different manners, and 
of a contrary belief, could not fail of being more favor- 
able to the increase of virtue and the expansion of the 
faculties of the mind. Many combinations were neces- 
sary in order to secure the confidence of two nations so 
opposite in their manners as the people of the North and 
those of the Hast.” 

‘The Christian religion gave new vigor to the princi- 
ples of moral life in a set of men who were without con- 
nection, without any direct pursuit in view, or any tie 
that could endear their existence. It is true, it was in- 
capable of restoring to them their country ; but it elevated 
their thoughts, polluted with the vices of mankind, to a 
future state; and they found consolation in the hope of 
participating in a happy immortality. Thus many char- 
acters were awakened to energy by religion.” 

“The Christian religion became a bond of union be- 
tween the people of the North and those of the East; it 
blended manners and opinions that were before diametri- 
cally opposite; and, by reconciling the most inveterate 
enemies, formed nations, among whom energy has 
strengthened talents, and talents have awakened energy. 
This reciprocal benefit was, nevertheless, produced by 
slow degrees: eternal Providence employs centuries in 
the accomplishment of its designs: while our finite exist- 
ence feels irritated and amazed at the delay. But event- 
ually the victors and the vanquished have formed but one 
united people in the different countries cf. Europe. To 
this end, the Christian religion has most powerfully con- 
tributed.” 

“This reconciliation between the North and the Kast, 


304 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


which was so beneficial to the world, was not the only 
advantage which resulted from the Christian religion, for 
it is generally believed, that the abolition of slavery was 
the consequence of its benign precepts: to this decree 
of justice we may add other benefits which it conferred 
upon mankind, namely, domestic happiness and the sym- 
pathy of pity.” 

‘In the degenerate ages of the Roman Empire, the 
women were torn from their servitude by the most un- 
bridled licentiousness, and plunged into the abyss of 
degradation; but the introduction of Christianity re- 
stored them, in respect to moral and religious duties at 
least, to a state of equality with the men. Christianity, 
by rendering marriage a sacred institution, secured the 
affection which arose from conjugal attachment.” 

‘¢The mind is disposed towards religion by sensibility : 
on which account women surpassed men in that Christian 
emulation which Europe possessed during the first cen- 
turies of modern history.” 

‘‘Commiseration for sufferings must, in every age, 
have naturally existed in the human heart: neverthe- 
less, how different are the morals of antiquity from those 
of Christianity! The one is founded upon violence, and 
the other upon sympathy.” 

«The Christian religion also requires self-denial: this 
virtue has, by monkish fanaticism, been extended far be- 
yond the austerity of ancient philosophy; but the prin- 
cipies of this sacrifice, so strongly enjoined by Chris- 
tianity, are, perfect submission. to the Divine will, and 
meek humility toward our fellow-creatures; not like the 
Stoics, to sacrifice every thing to the pride and dignity 
of our own character. By an attention to the literal 


Literary Writers. 305 


sense of the Gospel, unsullied by the false interpreta- 
tions which have been given of it, we clearly perceive 
that a benevolent spirit of compassion toward the un- 
happy pervades its every page; and we there find it is 
considered as a duty incumbent upon man to feel deeply 
for the distresses incident to humanity.” 

“It was the Protestant religion which inspired the 
modern people of the North with a more general spirit 
of philosophy than was possessed by those of the Hast. 
The Reformation was certainly the epoch of history which 
essentially promoted the perfectibility of the human 
species. The Protestant religion contains no active 
seeds of superstition; while it gives to virtue every sup- 
port which can be drawn from wisdom. In those coun- 
tries where the Protestant religion is predominant, it 
maintains purity of manners, and does not in the least 
retard the progress of philosophy.” 

Madame de Stael also makes the following striking re- 
mark: “TI desire no other evidence of the truth of 
Christianity than the Lord’s Prayer.” 


RICHARD STEELE. 


United with Addison in the production of the Essays 
that appeared in the Spectator, was Sir Richard Steele, 
a man of superior talents and great celebrity as a writer. 
A critic remarks that in his writings “Virtue excites 
esteem and admiration: vice, contempt and_ hatred. 
Rectitude is shown to be true wisdom.” Like Addison, 
too, he had a high opinion of the style of the Bible. He 
Says: 

“The greatest pleasures with which the imagination 

26 


306 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


can be entertained are to be found in Sacred Writ, and 
even the style of Scripture is more than human.” 

“T am very confident whoever reads the gospels, with 
a heart as much prepared in favor of them, as when he 
sits down to Virgil or Homer, will find no passage there 
which is not told with more natural force, than any epi- 
sode in either of those wits, who were the chief of mere 
mankind.” 

ISAAC TAYLOR. 

One of the voluminous writers of the present century, 
was Isaac Taylor, eminent as a Christian philosopher, 
artist, and mechanician. He was the third of his name 
who attained distinction; his grandfather and father be- 
ing both named Isaac, and each in his way distinguished. 
That he was conversant with general knowledge, will ap- 
pear from the titles of some of his works: Natural 
History of Enthusiasm, Fanaticism, Spiritual Despotism, 
Physical Theory of Another Life, Elements of Thought, 
Loyola, Wesley, The Restoration of Belief, Logic of 
Theology, Ultimate Civilization, The History of the 
Transmission of Ancient Books to Modern Times, and 
The Spirit of Hebrew Poetry. In his Natural History 
of Enthusiasm, he shows the Inherent Power of Christi- 
anity to maintain itself: 

He first refers to the “early triumphs of the Gospel 
over the fascinating idolatries and the astute atheism of 


Greece and Rome,” as an evidence of the “innate power 


of the religion of the Bible to vanquish the hearts of 


men.” 


He next refers to the period of the Reformation, and 
remarks: “At such a time, which seemed to leave no 
chance for continued existence to aught that was not in 


oe 


Literary Writers. 307 


its nature vigorous, might it not have confidently been 
said, This must be the crisis of Christianity? if it be not 
inwardly sound, if it has not a true hold of human na- 
ture, if it be a thing of feebleness and dotage, fit only 
for cells and cowls and the precincts of spiritual despotism ; 
if it be not adapted to the world of action, if it have not 
sympathy with the feelings of men—of free men, noth- 
ing can save it: no power of princes, no devices of 
priests, will avail to rear it anew, and replace it in the 
veneration of the people: at least, not in any country 
where has been felt the freshening gale of intellectual 
life. The result of this crisis need not be narrated. 

“Yet another species of trial was in store to give 
proof of the indestructibility and victorious power of 
Christianity. It remained to be seen whether, when 
the agitations, political and moral, that were subsequent 
upon the great schism which had taken place in Europe, 
had subsided, and when the season of slumber and ex- 
haustion came on, and when human reason, strengthened 
and refined by physical science and elegant literature, 
should awake fully to the consciousness of its powers; 
whether then the religion of the Bible could retain its 
hold of the nations, or at least those of them that en- 
joyed, without limit, the happy influences of political 
liberty and intellectual light. This was a sort of pro- 
bation which Christianity had never before passed 
through. 

“Tt is difficult to imagine a single advantage that was 
lacking to the promoters of infidelity, or a single cir- 
cumstance of peril or ill-omen that was not present to 
deepen the gloom of the friends of religion. The actual 
issue of that signal crisis is before our eyes in the fresh- 


308 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


ness of arecent event. Christianity—we need not ask 
whether for the benefit or the injury of the world—has 
triumphed: the mere fact is all that concerns our ar- 
gument. 

“Again: The spread of the English stock and lan- 
guage and literature over the North American Conti- 
nent, is a significant indication of the power of Chris- 
tianity to retain its hold of the mind, and of its aptness 
to go hand in hand with civilization, even when unaided 
by those secular succors, to which its enemies in malice, 
and some of its friends in over-caution, are prone to at- 
tribute too much importance. The tendency of repub- 
licanism, and the connection of the colonies at the mo- 
ment of their revolt (from the mother country) with 
France, and the prevalence of a peculiarly eager and uncor- 
rected commercial temper, and the absence of every sort 
and semblance of restraint upon opinion, were concurrent 
circumstances belonging to the infancy of the American 
Union, of a kind which put to the severest test the in- 
trinsic power of Christianity in retaining its hold of the 
human mind. Could infidel experimenters have wished 
for conditions more equitable, under which to try the 
respective forces of the opposing systems? And what 
has been the issue?’ Christianity has gained rather than 
lost ground, and shows itself in a style of as much fer- 
vor and zeal as in England; and perhaps it has won the 
advantage in these respects. Wherever on that conti- 
nent good ‘order and intelligence are spreading, there 
also the religion of the Bible spreads.” 


| JOHANN H. D. ZSCHOKKE. 
Zschokke, an eminent German author of the present 


Literary Writers. 309 


century, has written on a variety of subjects. In one 
of his works, he asks: ‘‘ What would the world be with- 
out a Deity, without love, justice, freedom, retribution? 
A gigantic corpse, from which the soul has fled; an un- 
conscious play of things, in which there is no place for 
the highest and best—for virtue, love, perfection, but 
only for their names. A miserable, unmeaning, unsoly- 
able, never-ending riddle; and the most wretched of 
beings in it—man, with the claims of his reason and 
the sentiments of his heart!” 


NORTH BRITISH REVIEW. 


A writer in the North British Review has shown, in 
a few condensed sentences, and yet in a manner the 
most forcible and beautiful, the influence of the Bible 
in elevating the human intellect, and thus promoting 
true science and a noble civilization. He says: 

“Tt is the standard of universal appeal. In the en- 
tire range of literature, no book is so frequently quoted, 
or referred to. The majority of all the books ever pub- 
lished have been connected with it. It sustained 
Origen’s scholarship, and Chrysostom’s rhetoric. It 
whetted the penetration of Abelard, and exercised the 
keen ingenuity of Aquinas. It gave life to the revival 
of letters, and Dante and Petrarch reveled in its imagery. 
It augmented the erudition of Erasmus, and roused and 
blessed the intrepidity of Luther. Its temples are the 
finest specimens of architecture, and the brightest tri- 
umphs of music are associated with its poetry. It has 
inspired the English muse with her loftiest strains. Its 
beams gladdened Milton in his darkness, and cheered the 
song of Cowper in his sadness. It was the star which 


810 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


guided Columbus to the discovery of the New World, 
and it furnished the panoply of Puritan valor which 
shivered tyranny in days gone by. It ts the magna 
charta of the world’s regeneration and liberties. Such 
benefactors as Francke, Neff, Schwartz, Howard, Chal- 
mers, and Shaftsbury, are cast in the mold of the Bible. 
The records of false religions, from the Koran to the 
Book of Mormon, have owned its superiority, and sur- 
reptitiously purloined its jewels. Among the Christian 
classics, it loaded the treasures of Owen, charged the 
fullness of Hooker, barbed the point of Baxter, gave 
colors to the pallet and sweep to the pencil of Bunyan, 
enriched the fragrant fancy of Taylor, sustained the 
softness of Howe, and strung the deep-sounding plum- 
met of Edwards. In short, this collection of artless lives 
and letters has changed the face of the world, and en- 
nobled myriads of its population.” 


LONDON QUARTERLY REVIEW. 


The progress and triumphs of Christianity are thus 
eloquently described by the London Quarterly Review: 

“Christianity arose in an enlightened and skeptical 
age, but among a despised and narrow-minded people 
It earned hatred and persecution at home by its liberal 
genius and opposition to the national prejudices: it 
earned contempt abroad by its connection with the 
country where it was born, but which sought to strangle 
it in its birth. Emerging from Judea, it made its on- 
ward march through the most polished regions of the 
world—Asia Minor, Egypt, Greece, Rome—and in all it 
attracted notice and provoked hostility. Successive 
massacre and attempts at extermination,—persecution 


Literary Writers. 311 


for ages by the whole force of the Roman Empire, it 
bore without resistance, and seemed to draw fresh vigor 
from the ax; but assaults in the way of argument, from 
whatever quarter, it was never ashamed or unable to 
repel, and whether attacked or not, it was resolutely 
aggressive. In four centuries, it had pervaded the whole 
civilized world : it had mounted the throne of the Cesars : 
it had spread beyond the limits of their sway, and made 
inroads upon barbarian nations whom their eagles had 
never visited: it had gathered all genius and learning 
into itself, and made the literature of the world its own: 
it survived the inundation of the barbarian tribes, and 
conquered the world once more by converting its con- 
querors to the faith: it survived an age of barbarism: 
it survived the restoration of letters: it survived an age 
of free inquiry and skepticism, and has long stood its 
ground in the field of argument, and commanded the in- 
telligent assent of the greatest minds that ever were: it 
has been the parent of civilization and the nurse of learn- 
ing ; and if light and humanity and freedom be the boast 
of modern Europe, it is to Christianity she owes them. 
Exhibiting in the life of Jesus a picture, varied and 
minute, of the perfect human united with the Divine, in 
which the mind of man has not been able to find a de- 
ficiency, or detect a blemish—a picture copied from no 
model, and rivaled by no copy—it has accommodated 
itself to every period and every clime: it has retained 
through every change a salient spring of life, which 
enables it to throw off corruption and repair decay, and 
renew its youth amid outward hostility and inward 
divisions.” 


312 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


WESTMINSTER ABBEY DOCUMENT. 


In Westminster Abbey there was recently found a 
remarkable description of the Bible—its wonderful reve- 
lations and its glorious teachings. No author’s name 
was appended to the document, neither was any date 
given. Its contents are so important, that it is deemed 
proper to give it entire. 

‘A nation would be truly happy, if it were governed 
by no other laws than those of the blessed Book. 

“It is so complete a system that nothing can be added 
to it. 

“Tt contains every thing needful to be known or done. 

“Tt affords a copy for a king and a rule for a subject. 

“Tt gives instruction to a senate, authority and di- 
rections to a magistrate. 

“Tt cautions a witness, requires an impartial verdict 
from a jury, and furnishes the judge with his sentence. 

“Tt sets the husband as head of the household,. and 
the wife as mistress of the table: tells him how to rule, 
and her how to manage. 

“Tt entitles honor to parents, and enjoins obedience 
on children. 

“It prescribes and limits the sway of the sovereign, 
the rule and authority of the master; commands the 
subjects to honor, and the servants to obey; and prom- 
ises the blessing and protection of the Almighty to all 
that walk by its rules. 

“Tt promises food and raiment, and limits the use of 
both. | 

“Tt points out a faithful and eternal guardian to the 
departing husband and father, and tells him with whom 


Laterary Writers. 313 


to leave his fatherless children, and whom his widow is 
to trust ; and promises to bea father to the former, and a 
husband to the latter. . 

‘Tt teaches a man to set his house in order and know 
his will: it appoints a dowry for his wife, and entails the 
right of the first-born,* and shows how the young 
branches may be left. 

‘It defends the rights of all, and reveals vengeance to 
every defaulter, overreacher and trespasser. 

“Tt is the first book, and the oldest book in the world. 

“Tt contains the choicest matter, gives the best in- 
struction, and affords the greatest pleasure and satisfac- 
tion that we ever enjoyed. 

“Tt contains the best laws and most profound mysteries 
that ever were penned: it brings the best comforts to 
the inquiring and disconsolate. 

“Tt exhibits life and immortality from everlasting, and 
shows the way of glory. 

“It is a brief recital of all that is to come. 

“Tt settles all matters in debate, resolves all doubts, 
and eases the mind and conscience of all their scruples. 

“Jt reveals the only living and true God, and shows 
the way to him; and sets aside all other gods, and de- 
scribes the vanity of them, and trust in such: in short, 
it is a book of laws, to show right and wrong; a book of 
wisdom, that condemns all folly, and makes the foolish 
wise; a book of truth, that detects all lies and confronts 
all errors; and a book of life, that shows the way from 
everlasting death. 


* This refers to the Jewish economy. 


27 


314 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


‘Tt contains the most ancient antiquities, strange 
events, wonderful occurrences, heroic deeds, and un- 
paralleled wars. 

“Tt describes the celestial, terrestrial, and infernal 
worlds, and the origin of the angel myriads, human tribes, 
and devilish legions. 

‘“ Search the Scriptures.” 


MILITARY MEN. 


NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 


Blair, in his poem, The Grave, speaks of “the mighty 
thunderbolts of war.” To no one is this strong, expres- 
sive language more applicable than to Napoleon Bona- 
parte, “the man of destiny.” For nearly the fifth of a 
century, by battle after battle, he disturbed the peace of 
all Europe. Whatever opinions may be entertained 
respecting the results of his military movements, it is 
certain that if he had directed the energies of his won- 
derful mind to the science of government, and that alone, 
working for the welfare of the masses of the people, he 
would have been one of the world’s great benefactors. 
During his exile at St. Helena, he had numerous conver- 
sations with his attendants, several of which were by 
them committed to writing. Some of these on the sub- 
ject of Christ and his religion are here given: 

“T know men, and I tell you that Jesus Christ is not 
a man. Superficial minds see a resemblance between 
Christ and the founders of empires, and the gods of other 
religions. The resemblance does not exist. There is. 


Military Men. 315 


between Christianity and whatever other religion the dis- 
tance of infinity. We can say to the authors of every 
other religion, ‘ You are neither gods nor the agents of 
Deity. You are but missionaries of falsehood, molded 
from the same clay with the rest of mortals. You are 
made with all the passions and vices inseparable from 
them. Your temples and your priests proclaim your 
origin.’ Such will be the judgment, the cry of conscience, 
of whoever examines the gods and the temples of pagan- 
ism. Paganism was never accepted as truth by the wise 
men of Greece, neither by Socrates, Pythagoras, Plato, 
Anaxagoras, or Pericles. But on the other side, the 
loftiest intellects since the advent of Christianity have 
had faith, a living faith, a practical faith, in the myster- 
ies and the doctrines of the gospel, not only Bossuet and 
Fenelon, who were preachers, but Descartes and Newton, 
Leibnitz and Pascal, Corneille and Racine, Charlemagne 
and Louis XIV. 

“Paganism is the work of man. One can here read 
but our imbecility. What do these gods, so boastful, 
know more than other mortals? these legislators, Greek 
and Roman? this Numa, this Lycurgus? these priests 
of India or Memphis? this Confucius? this Mohammed ? 
Absolutely nothing. They have made a perfect chaos 
of morals. There is not one among them all who has 
said any thing new in reference to our future destiny, to 
the soul, to the essence of God, to the creation. Enter 
the sanctuaries of paganism: you find there perfect 
chaos—a thousand contradictions, war between the gods, 
the immobility of sculpture, the division and the rending 
of unity, the parceling out of the divine attributes, muti- 
lated or denied in their essence, the sophisms of igno- 


316 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


rance and presumption, polluted fetes, impurity and 
abomination adored, all sorts of corruption festering in 
the thick shades, with the rotten wood, the idol and his 
priest. Does this honor God, or does it dishonor him? 
Are these religions and these gods to be compared to 
Christianity ? 

“As for me, I say no! I summon entire Olympus to 
my tribunal. I judge the gods, but am far from pros- 
trating myself before their vain images. The gods, the 
legislators of India and of China, of Rome and of Athens, 
have nothing which can overawe me. Not that I am 
unjust to them—no, I appreciate them, but I know their 
value. Undeniably, princes whose existence 1s fixed in 
the memory as an image of order and of power, as the 
ideal of force and beauty—such princes were no ordi- 
nary men. 

“T see in Lyeurgus, Numa, and Mohammed only legis- 
lators, who, having the first rank in the state, have sought 
the best solution of the social problem, but I see nothing 
there which reveals Divinity. They themselves have 
never raised their pretensions so high. As for me, I 
recognize the gods and these great men as beings like 
myself. They have performed a lofty part in their times, 
as I have done. Nothing announces them divine. On 
the contrary there are numerous resemblances between 
them and myself—foibles and errors which ally them to 
me and to humanity. 

‘Tt is not so with Christ. Every thing in him aston- 
ishes me. His spirit overawes me, and his will confounds 
me. Between him and whoever else in.the world there 
is no possible term of comparison. He is truly a being 
by himself. His ideas and his sentiments, the truths 


OE ae 


Military Men. 317 


which he announces, his manner of convincing, are not 
explained either by human organizations or by the nature 
of things. His birth, and the history of his life; the 
profundity of his. doctrine, which grapples with the 
mightiest difficulties, and which is, of those difficulties, 
the most admirable solution; his gospel, his apparition, 
his empire, his march across the ages and the realms; 
every thing is for me a prodigy, a mystery insoluble, 
which plunges me into a reverie from which I can not 
escape; a mystery which is there before my eyes; a 
mystery which I can aeither deny nor explain. Here I 
see nothing human. 

‘“‘ The nearer | approach the more carefully I examine : 
every thing is above me, every thing remains grand—of 
a grandeur which overpowers. His religion is a revela- 
tion from an intelligence which certainly is not that of 
man. There is there a profound originality, which has 
created a series of words and maxims before unknown. 
‘Jesus borrowed nothing from our sciences. One can ab- 
solutely find nowhere, but in him alone, the imitation or 
the example of his life. He is not a philosopher, since 
he advances by miracles; and from the commencement 
his disciples worshiped him. He persuades them far 
more by an appeal to the heart than by any display of 
method or of logic. Neither did he impose upon them 
any preliminary studies nor any knowledge of letters. 
All his religion consists in believing. 

‘“‘ In fact, the sciences and philosophy avail nothing for 
salvation; and Jesus came into the world to reveal the 
mysteries of heaven and the laws of the spirit. Also, he 
has nothing to do but with the soul, and to that alone he 
brings his gospel. The soul is sufficient for him, as he 


318 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


is sufficient for the soul. Before him the soul was noth- 
ing. Matter and time were the masters of the world. 
At his voice every thing returns to order. Science and 
philosophy become secondary. The soul has reconquered 
its sovereignty. All the scholastic scaffolding falls as 
an edifice ruined, before one single word—faith. 

‘“What a master, and what a word, which can effect 
such a revolution! With what authority does he teach 
men to pray! “He imposes his belief, and no one, thus 
far, has been able to contradict him, first, because the 
gospel contains the purest morality, and also because 
the doctrine which it contains, of obscurity, is only the 
proclamation of the truth of that which exists where no 
eye can see, and no reason can penetrate. Who is the 
insensate who will say No to the intrepid voyager who re- 
counts the marvels of the icy peaks which he alone has 
had the boldness to visit? Christ is that bold voyager. 
One can doubtless remain incredulous, but no one can 
venture to say It is not so. 

‘“‘ Moreover, consult the philosophers upon these mys- 
terious questions which relate to the essence of man and 
to the essence of religion. What is their response? 
Where is the inan of good sense who has ever learned 
any thing from the system of metaphysics, ancient or 
modern, which is not truly a vain and pompous ideology, 
without any connection with our domestic life, with our 
passions? Unquestionably, with skill in thinking, one 
can seize the key of the ‘philosophy of Socrates and 
Plato; but to do this, it is necessary to be a metaphysi- 
clan; and moreover, with years of study, one must pos- 
sess special aptitude. But good sense alone, the heart, 


Military Men. 319 


an honest spirit, are suflicient to comprehend Chris- 
tianity. 

“The Christian religion is neither ideclogy nor meta- 
physics, but a practical rule which directs the actions of 
man, corrects him, counsels him, and assists him in all 
his conduct. The Bible contains a complete series of 
facts of historical men, to explain time and eternity, such 
as no other religion has to offer. If this is not the true 
religion one is very excusable in being deceived, for every 
thing in it is grand and worthy of God. I search in vain in 
history to find the similar to Jesus Christ, or any thing 
which can approach the gospel. Neither history, nor hu- 
manity, nor the ages, nor nature, can offer me any thing 
_with which I can compare it or explain it. Here every 
thing is extraordinary. The more I consider the gospel 
the more I am assured that there is nothing there which 
is not beyond the march of events, and above the human 
mind. Even the impious themselves have never dared 
to deny the sublimity of the gospel, which inspires them 
with a sort of compulsory veneration. What happiness 
that book procures for them who believe it! What mar- 
vels those admire there who reflect upon it! Book 
unique, where the mind finds a moral beauty before un- 
known, and an idea of the Supreme superior even to that 
which creation suggests! Who but God could produce 
that type, that ideal of perfection, equally exclusive and 
original ? 

‘Christ, having but a few weak disciples, was con- 
demned to death. He died, the object of the wrath of 
the Jewish priests,and of the contempt of the nation, and 
abandoned and denied by his own disciples! ‘They are 
about to take me and crucify me,’ said he. ‘I shall be 


320 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


abandoned of all the world. My chief disciple will deny 
me at the commencement of my punishment. I shall be 
left to the wicked. But then, divine justice being satis- 
fied, original sin being expiated by my sufferings, the 
bond of man to God will be renewed, and my death will 
be the life of my disciples. Then they will be more 
Strong without me than with me, for they will see me 
rise again. I shall ascend to the skies, and I shall send 
to them from heaven a Spirit who will instruct them. 
The spirit of the cross will enable them to understand 
my gospel. In fine, they will believe it, they will preach 
it, and they will convert the world.’ 

“And this strange promise, so aptly called by Paul the 
‘foolishness of the cross,’ this prediction of one miser- 
ably crucified, is literally accomplished; and the mode 
of the accomplishment is perhaps more prodigious than 
the promise. It is not a day, nor a battle, which has de- 
cided it. Isit the lifetime of a man? No! it is a war, 
a long combat of three hundred years, commenced by the 
apostles and continued by their successors and by suc- 
ceeding generations of Christians. In this conflict, all 
ths kings and all the forces of the earth were arrayed on 
one side: upon the other, I see no army, but a mysteri- 
ous energy, individuals scattered here and there in all 
parts of the globe, having no other rallying sign than a 
common faith in the mysteries of the cross. 

‘What a mysterious symbol! the instrument of the 
punishment of the man-God! His disciples were armed 
with it. ‘The Christ,’ they said, ‘God, has died for the 
salvation of men!’ What a strife, what a tempest, these 
simple words have raised around the humble standard of 
the sufferings of the man-God! On the one side, we 


Military Men. 321 


see rage, and all the furies of hatred and violence: on 
the other, there is gentleness, moral courage, infinite 
resignation. For three hundred years spirit struggled 
against the brutality of sense, the conscience against 
despotism, the soul against the body, virtue against the 
vices. ‘The blood of Christians flowed in torrents. They 
died, kissing the hand which slew them. The soul alone 
protested, while the body surrendered itself to all tor- 
tures. Hvery-where Christians fell, and every- where 
they triumphed. 

“You speak of Cesar, of Alexander, of their con- 
quests, and of the enthusiasm they kindled in the hearts 
of their soldiers; but can you conceive of a dead man 
making conquests, with an army faithful and entirely 
devoted to his memory? My armies have forgotten me, 
even while living, as the Carthagenian army forgot Han- 
nibal. Such is our power! A single battle lost crushes 
us, and adversity scatters our friends. Can you conceive 
of Czesar, the eternal emperor of the Roman senate, from 
the depths of his mausoleum governing the empire, watch- 
ing over the destinies of Rome? Such is the history of 
the invasion and conquest of the world by Christianity : 
such is the power of the God of the Christians ; and such 
is the perpetual miracle of the progress of the faith and 
of the government of his church. Nations pass away, 
thrones crumble, but the church remains. What, then, 
is the power which has protected this church, thus 
assailed by the furious billows of rage, and the hostility 
of ages? Where is the arm which, for eighteen hundred 
years, has protected the church from so many storms 
which have threatened to engulf it? 

“In every other existence hut that of Christ, how 


822 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


many imperfections! Where isthe character which has not 
yielded, vanquished by obstacles? Where is the individual 
who has never been governed by circumstances or places, 
who has not succumbed to the influence of the times, who 
has never compounded with any customs or passions? 
From the first day to the last he is the same, always the 
same, majestic and simple, infinitely firm and infinitely 
gentle. 

‘“‘ Truth should embrace the universe. Such is Chris- 
tianity, the only religion which destroys sectional preju- 
dice; the only one that proclaims the unity and the 
absolute brotherhood of the whole human family ; the only 
one which is purely spiritual ; in fine, the only one which 
assigns to all, without distinction, for a true country the 
bosom of the Creator, God. Christ proved that he was 
the Son of the Eternal by his disregard of time. All his 
doctrines signify one only and the same thing—eternity. 

“Tt is true that Christ proposed to our faith a series 
of mysteries. He commands, with authority, that we 
should believe them, giving no other reason than these 
tremendous words, ‘Il am God.’ He declares it. What 
an abyss he creates by that declaration between himself 
and all the fabrications of religion! What audacity, 
what sacrilege, what blasphemy, if it were not true! [I 
say more: the universal triumph of an affirmation of that 
kind, if the triumph were not really that of God himself, 
would be a plausible excuse and a reason for atheism. 

‘“‘ Moreover, in propounding mysteries, Christ is har- 
monious with nature, which is profoundly mysterious. 
From whence do I come? Whither do I go? Who am 
I? Human life is a mystery in its origin, its organiza- 
tion, and its end. In man and out of man, in nature 


Military Men. Duo 


every thing is mysterious. And can one wish that re- 
ligion should not be mysterious? ‘The creation and the 
destiny of the world are an unfathomable abyss, as also 
are the creation and the destiny of each individual. 
Christianity, at least, does not evade these great ques- 
tions. It meets them boldly. And our doctrines are a 
solution of them, for every one who believes. 

“The gospel possesses a secret virtue, a mysterious 
efficacy, a warmth which penetrates and soothes the 
heart. One finds, in meditating upon it, that which one 
experiences in contemplating the heavens. The gospel 
is not a book; it is a living being, with an action, a 
power, which invades every thing that opposes its ex- 
tension. Behold it upon this table, this book surpassing 
all others.” 

Here the Emperor solemnly placed his hand upon it, 
and remarked: ‘I never omit to read it, and every day 
with the same pleasure. Nowhere is to be found such a 
series of beautiful ideas, admirable moral maxims, which 
defile like the battalions of a celestial army, and which 
produce in our soul the same emotion which one experi- 
ences in contemplating the infinite expanse of the skies, 
resplendent in a summer’s night with all the brilliancy 
of the stars. Not only is our mind absorbed, it is con- 
trolled, and the soul can never go astray with this bovk 
for its guide. Once master of our spirit, the faithful 
gospel loves us. (God ever is our friend, our father, and 
truly our God. The mother has no greater care for the 
infant whom she nurses. 

‘What a proof of the divinity of Christ! With an 
empire so absolute, he has but one single end—the 
spiritual melioration of individuals, the purity of con- 


524 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


science, the reunion to that-which is true, the holiness 
of the soul. Christ speaks, and at once generations be- 
come his by stricter, closer ties than those of blood—by 
the most sacred, the most indissoluble of all unions. He 
kindles a love which consumes self-love, and which pre- 
valis over every other love. The founders of other re- 
ligions never conceived of this mystical love, which is 
the essence of Christianity, and is beautifully called 
charity. In every attempt to effect this thing, namely, 
to make himself beloved, man deeply feels his own im- 
potence: so that Christ’s greatest miracle undoubtedly 
is the reign of charity. 

“J have so inspired multitudes that they would die 
for me. God forbid that I should form any comparison 
between the enthusiasm of the soldier and Christian 
charity, which are as unlike as their cause. But, after 
all, my presence was necessary: the lightning of my 
eye, my voice, a word from me, then the sacred fire was 
kindled in their hearts. I do, indeed, possess the secret 
of this magical power, which lifts the soul, but I could 
never impart it to any one. None of my generals ever 
learned it from me; nor have I the means of perpetuating 
my name and love for me in the hearts of men, and to 
effect these things without physical means. Now that I 
am at St. Helena, now that I am alone, chained upon this 
rock, who fights and wins empires for me? Who are 
the courtiers of my misfortune? Who thinks of me? 
Who makes efforts for me in Europe? Where are my 
friends?. Yes, two or three, whom your fidelity immor- 
talizes—you share, you console my exile.” 

Here the voice of the Emperor trembled with emotion, 
and for a moment he was silent. He then continued: 


Military Men. 325 


Yes, our life once shone with all the brillianey of the 
diadem and the throne; and yours, Bertrand, reflected 
that splendor as the dome of the Invalides, gilt by us, 
reflects the rays of the sun. But disasters came: the 
gold gradually became dim: the ruin of misfortune 
and outrage with which I am daily deluged has effaced 
all the brightness. We are mere lead now, General 
_ Bertrand, and soon I shall be in my grave. 

‘Such is the fate of great men. So it was with Ceasar 
and Alexander; and I, too, am forgotten; and the name 
of a conqueror and an empire is a college theme! Our 
exploits are tasks given to pupils by their tutor, who sit 
in judgment upon us, awarding censure or praise. And 
mark what is soon to become of me. Assassinated [?] 
by the English oligarchy, I die before my time; and my 
dead body, too, must return to the earth to become food 
for worms. Behold the destiny, near at hand, of him 
who has been called The Great Napoleon? What an 
abyss between my deep mystery and the eternal reign of 
Christ, who is proclaimed, loved, adored, and which is 
extending over all the earth? Is this to die? Is it not, 
rather to live? The death of Christ! It is the death 
of God!” 

For a moment the Emperor was silent. As General 
Bertrand made no reply, he solemnly added: “If you 
do not perceive that Jesus Christ is God, then I did 
wrong to make you a general.” 

Sir Walter Scott, in his life of Napoleon, says: 

“On various occasions, he expressed, with deep feel- 
ings of devotion, his conviction of the existence of the 
Deity, the great truth upon which the whole system of 
religion rests; and this at a time when the detestable 


326 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


doctrines of atheism and materialism were generally cur- 
rent in France. Immediately after his elevation to the 
dignity of First Consul, he meditated the restoration of 
religion; and thus, in a mixture of feeling and of policy, 
expressed himself upon the subject to Thibaudeau, then a 
counselor of state. Having combatted for a long time 
the systems of modern philosophers upon different kinds 
of worship, upon deism, natural religion, and so forth, 
he proceeded to say: ‘Last Sunday evening, in the 
general silence of nature, I was walking in these grounds 
(of Malmaison.) The sound of the church bell of Ruel 
fell upon my ear, and renewed all the impressions of my 
youth. I was profoundly affected, such is the power of 
early habit and associations; and I considered, if such 
was the case with me, what must be the effect of such 
recollections upon the more simple and credulous vulgar. 
Let your philosophers answer that. The people must 
have a religion.’ ” 

After various other remarks, Scott says: “He ex- 
tended his hands toward heaven, and exclaimed, ‘ Who is 
it that has created all above and all around us?’ ” 

A few days before Napoleon’s death, he said, “I am 
neither a philosopher nor a naturalist. I believe in God, 
and am of the religién of my father. It is not every 
body who can be an atheist.” He then turned to Dr. 
Antomarchi, whom he seems to have suspected of heter- 
odoxy, which the doctor, however, disowned. “ How 
can you carry itso far?” he said. ‘Can you not believe 
in God, whose existence every thing proclaims, and in 
whom the greatest minds have believed.” * 


* Napoleon’s conversations have appeared in various works. 


Military Men. 327 


WINFIELD SCOTT. 


Winfield Scott, one of America’s pure patriots and il- 
lustrious generals, thus speaks of the elevated morality 
and divine benevolence of the religion of the Bible: 
“ We should especially remember, ‘ all things whatsoever 
we would that men should do to us, to do even so to 
them.’ This divine principle is of universal obligation: 
it is as applicable to rulers in their transactions with 
other nations as to private individuals in their daily in- 
tercourse with each other. Power is intrusted by the 
Author of peace and Lover of concord ‘to do good, and 
avoid evil.’ Such is clearly the revealed will of God.” 


GEORGE A. SHERIDAN. 


General Sheridan has shown himself a brave man— 
first as defender of the Union, and afterward as defender 
of the christian faith. One of his lectures, entitled the 
Modern Pagan, is an eloquent reply to the reckless as- 
sertions of the great American advocate of infidelity, In- 
gersoll, and wherever delivered has received the highest 
praise. The following extracts show his exalted opinion 
of the christian religion : 

“The history. of America is simply a grand poem 
sounding in immortal numbers the praises of Christianity. 
A Christian king anda Christian queen supplied the gold 
to build the ships that found our shores. Christian 
hands felled the trees and shaped them into the keels, 
and ribs, and planks, and masts, out of which the ships 
were built. Christians spun their cordage, and from the 
looms of Christians leaped the white sails that, filled 
with the gales of God, bore them over surging seas ever 


328 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


toward the setting sun. A Christian captain, with a 
heroism born of faith in God, piloted the ships through 
storm and tempest, until at last their tired wings were 
folded, and they rocked restfully on the shining bosom 
of the tropic sea. The Christian cross was the first tree 
planted by civilization under the summer sun of Salva- 
dor, and the first words of hope and progress, that broke 
the barbaric silence of the new world, fell from the lips 
of the heroic men who knelt within its sacred shadow 
and filled the sunny skies with songs of thanks to the 
eternal God, whose hand had held them up in safety, as 
their frail barks went plowing through the unknown, 
soundless seas, that rolled between them and the land 
they sought. Christians declared the independence of 
this country, fought its battles, formed its Constitution, 
established its schools, universities, and hospitals, and 
rule the country to-day. 

‘Christianity lifts up the living, consoles the dying, 
and cffers to all mankind the love of God, the universal 
parent. And so, after all these years of doubt and 
desolation, the noon-tide of Christianity echoes with the 
same faith and utters itself in the same strains that were 
heard in the shadowy morning of the far-off past, and 
will still be heard in'the far-distant future of our race, 
when man has learned the old lesson better, that love 
created this universe, and throbs eternally through it 
from the great white throne down to every desolate 
human heart.” 


ARTHUR W. K. @. WELLINGTON. 
The Duke of Wellington, the great hero of Waterloo, 


Musicians. 329 


after a series of brilliant victories in different countries, 
rendered valuable services at home as prime minister 
and in other civil capacities. He thus had ample oppor- 
tunities of judging of the real merits of religion. He 
once exclaimed: ‘Educate men without religion, and 
you make them but clever devils.” 

On one occasion, when the Duke was kneeling at the 
altar in a church to partake of the holy sacrament, a 
parishioner in ordinary clothing approached, and knelt 
beside him. The sexton of the church came up, and told 
the poor man not to kneel there, as the person next to 
him was the Duke of Wellington. The Duke, hearing 
the remark, instantly addressed his fellow-communicant 
in language that was alike creditable to his head and 
heart, ‘No, no, my brother, remain where you are: we 
are all on an equality here.” 


MUSICIANS. 


GEORGE FREDERICK HANDEL. 


From the Bible the greatest musicians have drawn 
their sublimest inspirations. Handel was the author of 
the celebrated Messiah and several other sacred orato- 
rios. The Messiah is regarded as the grandest of all the 
productions of musical genius. Though composed over 
a century and a half ago, it only increases in popularity. 
The Grand Hallelujah Chorus seems almost a super- 
human production. The author died, as he wished, on 
Good Friday. This was April 13th, 1759. He died, as 

28 


330 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


he said, “in hopes of meeting his good God, his sweet 
Lord and Savior, on the day of his resurrection.” 


JOSEPH HAYDN. 


Haydn was the author of the Creation, an oratorio 
that is considered by many to be equal to the finest pro- 
ductions of Handel. He was also author of several other 
oratorios. When his friend, the poet Carpani, inquired 
of him how it was that his church music was always so 
cheerful, the great composer made the following most 
beautiful reply: “I can not compose it otherwise: I 
write according to the thoughts I feel: when I think 
upon God, my heart is so full of joy that the notes dance 
and leap, as it were, from my pen; and since God has 
given me a cheerful heart, it will be pardoned me that I 
serve him with a cheerful spirit.” 


JENNIE LIND. 


Jennie Lind was one of the most illustrious vocalists 
of the present or any previous century. Her reputation, 
both in Europe and America, was without limit. More- 
over she was one of the noblest and most benevolent of 
women. Her light as a christian shone with the splen- 
dor of the sun. The following account of her talents 
and glorious deeds is from the editor of the Youth’s 
Companion: 

“Years ago we heard Jennie Lind sing in the Messiah. 
She revealed, by her rendering of ‘I know that my Re- 
deemer liveth,’ the ability of song to interpret the 
sublimest of themes. She sang: ‘ Though worms destroy 
this body, yet in my flesh I shall see God,’ with a tone 
and a phrasing that made the doctrine of the resurrec- 


Musicians. 331 


tion luminous. She must be a Christian, we mused, as 
we went out from the concert hall, else she could never 
have given these vivid expositions of faith in the Lord 
who rose again frown the dead. 

“The musing of forty years ago was confirmed, the 
other day, by reading the reminiscences of Rev. C. A. 
Wilkinson, the English chaplain to the King of Hanover. 
He met Jennie Lind just after she had signed her con- 
tract to sing in the United States. In the course of 
their conversation, she mentioned the great ignorance 
of the lower classes in Stockholm, and their indifference 
to the education of their children. ‘J have,’ she said, 
‘determined to endow schools for these poor little chil- 
dren. My motive in going to America is to earn one 
hundred and eighty thousand dollars, which I intend to 
hand over to trustees, who will carry out my plans. May 
I not, sir, hope for God’s blessing upon this work, under- 
taken for the lambs of Christ’s flock? My daily prayer 
is that | may be spared three years, so that I may carry 
out my plans for my poor children in Stockholm. Is 
there any thing in that prayer inconsistent with the will 
of God.’ 

“ One morning, after a charity concert which she had 
given, the clergyman found her counting and sealing up 
the money received, preparatory to distributing it among 
the poor. He began complimenting her, but she cut 
him short by saying: ‘ It is the only return I can make 
unto the good Lord for the gift He has bestowed upon 
me, which is the great joy of my life. I can only repay 
Him through the poor and the suffering. This I delight 
to do.’ Her soul and heart seemed absorbed in obeying 
St. James’ rule: ‘ Pure religion and undefiled before God 


332 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows 
in their affliction, and keep himself unspotted from the 
world.’ ”’ 


NOVELISTS. 


CHARLES DICKENS. 


The fame of Dickens as a novelist is generally known. 
That he well understood human nature, and could finely 
delineate human character, no one will question. And 
how did he regard the Sacred Volume? This question 
will best be answered by making one or two quotations 
from a letter to one of his sons: 

“Try to do to others, as you would have them to do to 
you, and do not be discouraged if they fail sometimes. 
It is much better for you that they should fail in obey- 
ing the greatest rule laid down by our Savior, than that 
you should. I put a New Testament among your books 
for the very same reasons that made me write an easy 
account of it for you when you were a little child: be- 
cause it is the best book that ever was, or ever will be 
known in the world; and because it teaches you the best 
lessons by which any human creature, who tries to be 
truthful and faithful to duty, can possibly be guided. 
As your brothers have gone away, one by one, I have 
written to each such words as I am how writing to you, 
and have entreated them all to guide themselves by this 
book, putting aside the interpretations and inventions 
of man.” 

‘“‘T now must solemnly impress upon you the truth and 
beauty of the Christian religion as it came from Christ 


Novelists. 333 


himself, and the impossibility of going far wrong if you 
humbly but heartily respect it.” 

“Never abandon the wholesome practice of saying 
your own private prayers, night and morning. I 
have never abandoned it myself, and I know the comfort 
of it.” 

Dickens thus expresses himself on the Bible style of 
preaching, which he considers suitable for the masses: 

“That these Sunday meetings in theaters are good 
things, Ido not doubt. Nor do I doubt that they will 
work lower and lower down in the social scale, if those 
who preside over them will be very careful on two heads: 
first, not to disparage the intelligence of their hearers, nor 
set themselves in antagonism to the natural inborn de- 
sires of the masses: second, a consideration taking pre- 
cedence of all others, that in the New Testament there is 
the most beautiful and affecting history conceivable by 
man, and there are the most terse models for all prayer 
and for all preaching. As to the models, imitate them: 
as to the history, tell it. Some people can not read; some 
people will not read; and many will not, or do not un- 
derstand. Help them over their stumbling-blocks by 
setting forth the history in narrative, with no fear of 
exhausting it. You will never preach so well: you will 
never move them so profoundly: you will never send 
them away with half so much to think of. What is your 
philosophy, or skeptical philosopher, to me, when you 
have the widow’s son to tell me about, the ruler’s daugh- 
ter, and the brother of the two sisters, who was dead, 
when one of them ran to the other, crying, ‘The Master 
is come, and calleth for thee?’ ” | 


334 Testimonics in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


HENRY FIELDING. 


One of England’s popular novelists, was Fielding, 
Though his life was not strictly religious, he had correct 
views of divine truth. After speaking of an increased 
application to study, he says: 

“¢The books which now employed my time solely were 
those, as well ancient as modern, which treat of true 
philosophy, a word which is by many thought to be the 
subject only of farce and ridicule. I now read over the 
works of Aristotle and Plato, with the rest of those in- 
estimable treasures which ancient Greece hath bequeathed 
to the world. To this I added another study, compared 
to which all the philosophy taught by the wisest heathens 
is little better than a dream, and is, indeed, as full of 
vanity as the silliest jester ever pleased to represent it. 
This is that divine wisdom which is alone to be found in 
the Holy Scriptures: for these impart to us the knowl- 
edge and assurance of things much more worthy our 
attention, than all which this world can offer to our 
acceptance: of things which heaven itself hath conde- 

scended to reveal to us, and to the smallest knowledge 
of which the highest human wit, unassisted, could never 
ascend. I began now to think all the time I had spent 
with the best heathen writers was little more than labor 
lost; for however pleasant and delightful their lessons 
may be, or however adequate to the right regulation of 
our elise? with respect to this malt only, yet, when 
compared with the glory revealed in Scripture, their 
highest documents will appear as trifling, and of as little 
consequence as the rules by which children regulate their 
childish little games and pastime. ‘True it is, that 


Novelists. 335 — 


philosophy makes us wiser, but Christianity makes us 
better men. Philosophy elevates and steels the mind; 
Christianity softens and sweetens it. The former makes 
us the objects of human admiration ; the latter of divine 
love. That insures us a temporal, but this an eternal 
happiness.” 

SIR WALTER scomt. 

Sir Walter Scott was a voluminous writer both of 
poetry and prose. His productions were received by the 
reading public with great avidity, and were highly eulo- 
gized by the critics. They are regarded as moral in 
their character, as well as elevated in their literary tone. 
Gladstone, the British statesman, speaking of Scott, 
says, ‘He died a great man, and what is more, a good 
man. He has left us a double treasure—the memory of 
himself and the possession of his works. Both of these 
will endure.” And Thomas Carlyle, the great author 
and critic, calls him the “ pride of all Scotsmen,” add- 
ing, ‘“‘ No sounder piece of English manhood was put to- 
gether in the eighteenth century.” This voluminous 
writer thus expresses his profound regard for the Bible 
and its momentous teachings. 


“ Within this awful Volume lies 
The mystery of mysteries: 
Happiest they of human race 
To whom their God has given grace 
To read, to fear, to hope, to pray, 
To lift the latch, to force the way; 
And better had they ne’er been born 
That read to doubt, or read to scorn.” 


Speaking of the efforts of the Frenci: mtidels to de- 


336 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


stroy the Christian Religion, Sir Walter Scott, in his Life 
of Napoleon, says: 

“An envenomed fury against religion and all its 
doctrines; a promptitude to avail themselves of every 
circumstance by which Christianity could be misrepre- 
sented; an ingenuity in mixing up their opinions in 
works which seemed the least fitting to involve such dis- 
cussions; above all, a pertinacity in slandering, ridicul- 
ing, and vilifying all who ventured to oppose their prin- 
ciples, distinguished the correspondents in this celebrated 
conspiracy against a religion, which, however it may be 
defaced by human inventions, breathes only that peace on 
earth, and good will to the children of men, which was 
proclaimed by Heaven at its divine origin. If these 
prejudiced and envenomed opponents had possessed half 
the desire of truth, or half the benevolence towards 
mankind, which were eternally on their lips, they would 
have formed the true estimate of the spirit of Christian- 
ity, not from the-use which had been made of the mere 
name by ambitious priests or enthusiastic fools, but by 
its vital effects upon mankind at large. They would have 
seen, that under its influence a thousand brutal and san- 
guinary superstitions had died away; that polygamy had 
been abolished, and with polygamy all the obstacles 
which it offers to domestic happiness, as well as to the 
due education of youth, and the natural and gradual civ- 
jlization of society. ‘They must have owned, that slavery, 
which they regarded, or affected to regard, with such 
horror, had first been gradually ameliorated, and finally 
abolished, by the influence of the Christian doctrines; 
that there was no one virtue tending to elevate mankind 
or benefit society, which was not enjoined by the precepts 


Novelists. 337 


they endeavored to misrepresent and weaken; no one 
vice by which humanity is degraded and society endan- 
gered, upon which Christianity hath not imposed a sgol- 
emn anathema. They might also, in their capacity of 
philosophers, have considered the peculiar aptitude of 
the Christian religion, not only to all ranks and condi- 
tions of mankind, but to all climates and to all stages of 
society. Nor ought it to have escaped them, that the 
system contains within itself a key to those difficulties, 
doubts, and mysteries, by which the human mind is agi- 
tated, so soon as it is raised beyond the mere objects 
which interest the senses. 

“Christianity alone offers a clew to this labyrinth, a 
solution to these melancholy and discouraging doubts; 
and however its doctrines may be hard to unaided flesh 
and blood, yet explaining as they do the system of the 
universe, which without them is so incomprehensible, 
and through their practical influence rendering men in 
all ages more worthy to act their part in the general 
plan, it seems wonderful how those, whose professed 
pursuit was wisdom, should have looked on religion not 
alone with that indifference, which was the only feeling 
evinced by the heathen philosophers toward the gross 
mythology of their time, but with hatred, malice, and all 
uncharitableness. One would rather have expected that 
after’such a review, men professing the real spirit which 
searches after truth and wisdom, if unhappily they were 
still unable to persuade themselves that a religion so 
worthy of the Deity (if such an expression may be used) 
had emanated directly from revelation, might have had 
the modesty to lay their finger on their lip, and distrust 

29 


338 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


their own judgment, instead of disturbing the faith of 
others; or, if confirmed in their incredulity, might have 
taken the leisure to compute at least what was to be 
gained by rooting up a tree which bore such goodly 
fruits, without having the means of replacing it by aught 
which could produce the same advantage to the common- 
wealth. 

“ Unhappily, blinded by self-conceit, heated with the 
ardor of controversy, gratifying their literary pride by 
becoming members of a league, in wnich kings and 
princes were included, and procuring followers by flat- 
tering the vanity of some, and stimulating the cupidity 
of others, the men of the most distinguished parts in 
France, became allied in a sort of anti-crusade against 
Christianity, and indeed against religious principles of 
every kind. How they succeeded is too universally 
known; and when it is considered that these men of let- 
ters, who ended by degrading the morals, and destroying 
the religion of so many of the citizens of France, had 
been first called into public estimation by the patronage 
of the higher orders, it is impossible not to think of the 
Israclitish champion, who, brought into the house of 
Dagon to make sport for the festive assembly, ended by 
pulling it down upon the heads of the guests—and upon 
his own. 

«We do not tax the whole nation of France with being 
infirm in religious faith, and relaxed in morals; still less 
do we aver that the Revolution which broke forth in that 
country, owed its rise exclusively to the license and in- 
fidelity, which were but too current there. The necessity 
of a great change in the principles of the ancient French 
monarchy, had its source in the usurpations of preceding 


Novelists. . 339 


kings over the liberties of the subject, and the oppor- 
tunity for effecting this change was afforded by the weak- 
ness and pecuniary distresses of the present government. 
These would have existed had the French court, and her 
higher orders, retained the simple and virtuous manners 
of Sparta, united with the strong and pure faith of primi- 
tive Christians. The difference lay in this, that a sim- 
ple, virtuous, and religious people would have rested 
content with such changes and alterations in the consti- 
tution of their government, as might remove the evils 
of which they had just and pressing reason to complain. 
They would have endeavored to redress obvious and 
practical errors in the body politic, without being led 
into extremes either by the love of realizing visionary 
theories, the vanity of enforcing their own particular 
philosophical or political doctrines, or the selfish argu- 
ment of demagogues, who, in the prospect of bettering 
their own situation by wealth, or obtaining scope for 
their ambition, aspired, in the words of the dramatic 
poet, to throw the elements of society into confusion, 
and thus 


‘ Disturb the peace of all the world, 
To rule it when ’twas wildest.’ 


“Tt was to such men as these last that. Heaven, in pun- 
ishment of the sins of France and of Europe, and per- 
haps to teach mankind a dreadful lesson, abandoned the 
management of the French revolution, the original move- 
ments of which, so far as they went to secure to the 
people the restoration of their natural liberty, and the 
abolition of the usurpations of the crown, had become 
not only desirable through the change of times, and by 


340 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


the influence of public opinion, but peremptorily neces- 
sary and inevitable.” 

When Sir Walter Scott returned, a trembling invalid 
from Italy, to die in his native land, the sight of his 
“sweet home” so invigorated his spirits, that some hope 
was cherished that he might recover. But he soon re- 
lapsed. He found that he must die. Addressing his 
son-in-law, Lockhart, he said, “ Bring me the Book.” 
«What book?” replied Lockhart. “ Can you ask,” said 
the expiring genius, whose fascinating novels have 
charmed the world, but have no balm for death, “Can 
you ask what book? There is but one—the Holy Bible.” 

When near his end, he said, “ Lockhart, I may have 
but a minute to speak to you. My dear son, be a good 
man: be virtuous: be religious: be a good man. Noth- 
ing else will give you comfort, when you come to lie here.” 

This great writer also remarks: “ The most learned, 
acute, and diligent student can not, in the longest life, 
obtain an entire knowledge of this one Volume. The 
more deeply he works this mine, the richer and more 
abundant he finds the ore.” 


ROYAL PERSONAGES. 


CHARLES THE FIFTH. 


Charles the Fifth, Emperor of Germany, after having 
swayed the scepter for forty years, and distinguished 
himself in a remarkable manner as a ruler, finally retired 
to solitude, and left on record this candid confession : 
“T have tasted more stisfaction in my solitude in one 


Royal Personages. 341 


day, than in all the triumphs of my former reign; and I 
find that the sincere study, profession, and practice of 
the christian religion, has in it such joys and sweetness 
as courts are strangers to.” 


LADY JANE GREY. 

One of the most noble and thoroughly-educated 
women of England was Lady Jane Grey. Relnctantly 
she accepted the diadem which Edward the Sixth had 
settled upon her. After a reign of only nine days, she 
was committed to the Tower with her husband, and sub- 
sequently brought to the scaffold by the cruel Mary. 
She refused to apostatize from the Protestant faith, and 
died with heroic firmness. On the night before she was 
beheaded, she sent a Greek Testament to her sister Cath- 
arine, with the following encomium written at the end 
of it: 

‘“‘T have sent you, good sister Catharine, a book which, 
although it be not outwardly trimmed with gold, yet in- 
wardly is of more worth than precious stones. It is the 
book, dear sister, of the law of the Lord. It ishis testa- 
ment and last will, which he bequeathed unto us poor 
creatures, which shal] lead you to the path of eternal 
joy. And if you, with a good mind, read it, and do, 
with an earnest mind, purpose to follow it, it shall bring 
- you to an immortal and everlasting life. It shall teach 
you how to live, and how to die. It shall win you more 
than you should have gained by your father’s land. For, 
as if God had prospered him, you should have inherited 
his lands, so if you apply diligently to this book, seek- 
ing to direct your life after it, youshall be an inheritor 
of such riches as neither the covetous shall withdraw 


342 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


from you, neither thief shall steal, neither yet moths 
corrupt.” | 

Lady Jane Grey was once asked by one of her friends, 
in a tone of surprise, how she could consent to forego 
the pleasures of the chase, which her parents were en- 
joying, and prefer sitting at home, reading the Bible. 
She smilingly replied: ‘All amusements of that descrip- 
tion are but a shadow of the pleasure which I enjoy in 
reading this book.” 


LOUIS, DUKE OF ORLEANS. 


Louis, one of the dukes of Orleans, says: “I know 
by experience, that sublunary grandeur and sublunary 
pleasure are deceitful and. vain, and are always infinitely 
below the conception we form of them. But on the con- 
trary, such happiness and such complacency may be 
found in devotion and piety as the sensual mind has no 
idea of.” 

QUEEN VICTORIA. 

An African prince was sent on an embassy to the 
court of Queen Victoria, when he asked her to tell him 
the secret of England’s greatness. The Queen did not 
bring out her jewels, like Hezekiah, but, handing him a 
beautifully bound copy of the Bible, said: “Tell the 
prince that this is the secret of England’s greatness.” 


——— 


PHILOSOPHERS AND SCIENTISTS. 


DUKE OF ARGYLE (JOHN G. D. CAMPBELL). 


The Duke of Argyle, in his great work on the Reign 
of Law, speaking of the physical forces, remarks: 


Philosophers and Scientists. 343 


“The more we know of nature, the more certain it 
appears that a multiplicity of separate forces does not 
exist, but that all her forces pass into each other, and 
are but modifications of some One Force, which is the 
source and center of the rest.” 

“When, therefore, scientific men speak, as they often 
do, of all phenomena being governed by invariable laws, 
they use language which is ambiguous, and in most cases 
they use it in a sense which covers an erroneous idea of 
the facts. There are no phenomena visible to man of 
which it is true to say that they are governed by any 
invariable force. That which does govern them is always 
some variable combinations of invariable forces. But 
this makes all the difference in reasoning on the relation 
of Will to law—of Providence to physical affairs: this is 
the one essential distinction to be admitted and observed. 
There is no observed Order of facts which is not due to a 
combination of forces; and there is no combination of 
forces which is invariable—none which are not capable 
of change in infinite degrees. In these senses—and these 
are the common senses in which law is used to express the 
phenomena of nature—law is not rigid, it is not immuta- 
ble, it is not invariable, but it is, on the contrary, pliable, 
subtle, various.” 

FRANCIS BACON. 

Three hundred years ago, Lord Bacon wrought a com- 
plete revolution in the world of science. Up to his 
time, theorizing had been generally, almost universally, 
indulged in—theorizing that, in many instances, had but 
little or no reference to facts. The consequence was, in 
the schools there existed a vast accumulation of literary 
rubbish. All this rubbish, Bacon swept away, completely 


344 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


and forever; and this he did by the adoption of one sim- 
ple principle,—that all scientific knowledge should be 
the result of experiment and observation. Since then 
the progress in philosophy has been most astonishing. 
Yet, in the midst of all this revolutionary work, the great 
genius preserved an unshaken faith in the fundamental 
principles of the Christian system. In his Confession 
of Faith, he says: 

““T believe that the sufferings of Christ, as they are 
sufficient to take away the sins of the whole world, so 
they are only effectual to those who are regenerate by 
the Holy Ghost, who breatheth where he will of his free 
grace, which grace, as the seed incorruptible quickeneth 
the spirit of man, and conceiveth him anew a son of 
God, and a member of Christ.” 

Speaking of the deteriorating tendencies of atheism, 
Lord Bacon gives an illustration that is plain, but ex- 
ceedingly pointed. He says: 

“They that deny a God destroy man’s nobility; for 
certainly man is of kin to the beasts by his body; and, 
if he be not of kin to God by his spirit, he is a base and 
ignoble creature. It destroys, likewise, magnanimity, 
and the raising of human nature; for, take an example 
of a dog, and mark what a generosity and courage he 
will put on when he finds himself maintained by a man, 
who to him is instead of a God, or ‘ melior natura [better 
nature;] which courage is manifestly such as that crea- 
ture, without that confidence of a better nature than his 
own, could never attain. So man, when he resteth and 
assureth himself upon divine protection and favor, gath- 
ereth a force and faith which human nature in itself could 
not obtain. Therefore, as atheism is in all respects 


Philosophers and Scientists. 345 


hateful, so in this, that it depriveth human nature of the 
means to exalt itself above human frailty.” 

Referring to the absurdity of atheism, and the evil re- 
sulting from a mere smattering of knowledge, Lord 
Bacon remarks: 

““T would rather believe all the fables in the legend, 
and the Talmud, and the Alcoran, than that this univer- 
sal frame is without a mind: and therefore God never 
wrought miracles to convince atheism, because his or- 
dinary works convince it. It is true that a little philos- 
ophy inclineth man’s mind to atheism; but depth in 
philosophy bringeth men’s minds about to religion: for, 
while the mind of man looketh upon second causes scat- 
tered, it may sometimes rest in them, and go no farther; 
but when it beholdeth the chain of them confederate and 
linked together, it must needs fly to Providence and 
Deity.” 

Describing the qualifications and duties of a ruler, 
Lord Bacon maintains that religion is an indispensable 
element, and says: 

‘Te must make religion the rule of government, and 
not to balance the scale; for he that casteth in religion 
only to make the scales even, his own weight is contained 
in those characters, ‘ Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin.’ ‘He 
is found too light: his kingdom shall be taken from him.’ 
And that king that holds not religion the best reason of 
state, is void of all piety and justice, the supporters of a 
king.” 

Lord Bacon, in enumerating what he calls the four pil- 
lars of government, three of which are justice, counsel, 
and treasure, placing religion ag the first in order and 
importance, says: 


346 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


“The reason why religion is universally and justly 
represented as essential to the prosperity of states, is 
not less obvious than the fact. The object of government 
is to enforce among individuals the observance cf the 
moral law, and states are prosperous in proportion as 
this object is attained. But the only effectual sanction 
to this law is the Christian religion. Hence a govern- 
ment which neglects the care* of religion is guilty of the 
folly of promulgating laws unaccompanied with any 
adequate sanction of requiring the community to obey 
without presenting to their minds the motives that gen- 
erally induce to a prompt and cheerful obedience. 
Under these circumstances, the only resource left to the 
public authorities is mere physical force ; and experience 
has abundantly shown that this is wholly ineffectual, ex- 
cepting as an aid and supplement, in particular cases, to 
the moral influences, which alone can be depended on for 
the preservation of the tranquillity and good order of so- 
ciety. There are persons, and even parties, who, at the 
very moment when the use of physical force as an engine 
of government is discredited and abandoned, seem to be 
laboring with a sort of frantic energy to destroy the in- 
fluence of all the moral motives that can be substituted 
for it, more especially religion. Ihave said, and I repeat, 
that if while we abandon the use of physical force as 
an engine of maintaining order we should also discard 
the only valuable and effectual moral influence, and leave 
the individual to the undirected guidance of his own self- 


* Religion can be cared for in a republic by the government 
protecting its adherents in their sacred rights, without partici- 
pating in its internal arrangements. 


Philosophers and Scientists. 347 


ish passions, our institutions will be found to be imprac- 
ticable, and society will fall into a state of dissolu- 
tion.” 

Lord Bacon is especially explicit, when speaking of 
the Sacred Scriptures. He says: “There never was 
found, in any age of the world, either religion or law 
that did so highly exalt the public good as the Bible.” 


ROBERT BOYLE. 


As a natural philosopher, the Hon. Robert Boyle, 
ranks deservedly high. After traveling extensively, he 
devoted himself to the study of the natural sciences. 
As an experimental philosopher, he showed intense en- 
thusiasm and superior skill. But amid all his labors, his 
mind was ever directed, not only to the great Originator 
of science, but also to the sacred Source of infallible 
truth. He founded a lecture at St. Paul’s for the defense 
of the Christian religion; published several works on 
theology; and contributed large sums of money for the 
circulation of the Scriptures and the spread of the gos- 
pel. His admiration of the inspired Volume was un- 
bounded, as the following quotations fully show : 

“*T esteem no labor lavished, that illustrates, or en- 
dears to me, that divine book: on my addictedness to 
which I gratulate myself, as thinking it no treacherous 
sign that God loves a man, that he inclines his heart to 
love the Scripture: where the truths are so precious and 
important, that the purchase must, at least, deserve the 
price. 

‘The Scripture is like a fire, that serves most men 
but to warm, and dry themselves, and dress their meat 


348 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


but serves the skillful chemist to draw quintessences, and 
make extracts.” 

‘‘T use the Scripture, not as an arsenal, to be resorted 
to, only, for arms and weapons, to defend this party, 
or to defeat his enemies: but, as a matchless temple, 
where I delight to be; to contemplate the beauty, the 
symmetry, and the magnificence of the structure ; and 
to increase my awe, and excite my devotion, to the Deity 
there preached and adored.” 

“As the moon, though darkened with spots, gives us a 
much greater light than the stars that seem all luminous, 
so do the Scriptures afford more light than the brightest 
human authors. In them, the ignorant may learn all 
requisite knowledge, and the most knowing may learn to 
discern their ignorance.” | 

“The Bible is indeed among books, what the diamond 
is among stones—the most precious and sparkling: the 
most apt to scatter light, and yet the solidest and the 
most proper to make impressions.” 


DAUGHTER OF GEORGES C. L. D. CUVIER. 


Baron Cuvier, the great French naturalist, had a 
daughter of. superior mind and fine accomplishments. 
From the father she'learnt to love the Bible, and she thus 
expresses her high regard for it : 

“T experience a pleasure in reading the Bible, which 
T have never felt before: it attracts and fixes me to an 
inconceivable degree, and I seek sincerely there, and 
only there, the truth. When I compare the calm and the 
peace which the smallest and most imperceptible grain 
of faith gives to the soul, with all that the world alone 
can give of joy or happiness, | feel that the least in the 


Philosophers and Scientists. 349 
kingdom of heaven is a hundred times more blessed than 
the greatest and most elevated of the men of the world.” 


RENE DESCARTES. 


Descartes was one of the most distinguished of the 
French philosophers. After attending college, he be- 
. came dissatisfied with much of what he had been taught 
as knowledge, and undertook the work of reform. He 
wrote several works, as Meditationes de Prima Philoso- 
phia, Principia Philosophizx, and others. He objects to 
the importance which has been attached to the doctrine 
of final causes—a final cause being the end, design, or 
object for which any thing is done. The following are 
the reasons for his objections, as given in his Fourth 
Meditation : 

‘“We shall assume no reasonings concerning natural 
things from the ends which God hath proposed to himself 
in their creation, because we ought not to arrogate to 
ourselves the dignity of being partakers of his counsels.” 
‘‘In my meditations on this subject, the first considera- 
tion which occurs, is this: that it is no cause of sur- 
prise God hath created many things, of whose uses I am 
ignorant; and that it affords no ground for doubting his 
existence should I discover there are many other things 
of which I can comprehend neither the reason nor the 
manner of their creation: since I plainly see that my 
‘own nature is very feeble and limited, while that of God 
is immense, incomprehensible, infinite. This considera- 
tion alone is sufficient to persuade me, that innumerable 
things are possible with Him, of whose uses I must be 
ignorant. For this one reason, therefore, | am of opin- 
ion, that the whole kind of causes, which in physics are 


350 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


usually deduced from the ends proposed, are altogether 
useless. For I am sensible, that I can not, without rash- 
ness, pretend to fathom the purposes of God.” 


LEONARD EULER. 


Simpson, in his Plea for Religion, portrays the char- 
acter of Buler, one of the most learned and scientific 
men of the eighteenth century, in the following brief, 
truthful remarks: 

“Tt is said of this great christian philosopher, that 
few men of letters have written so much as he. His 
memory shall endure till science herself is no more. No 
geometrician has ever embraced so many objects at one 
time, or has equaled him either in the variety or magni- 
nitude of his discoveries. He had read all the Latin 
classics, could repeat the whole Mneis of Virgil by heart ; 
was perfect master of ancient mathematical literature ; 
had the history of all ages and nations, even to the 
minutest facts, ever present to his mind; was acquainted 
with physic, botany, and chemistry; was possessed of 
every qualification that could render a man estimable. 
Yet this man, accomplished as he was, was filled with 
respect for religion. His piety was sincere, and his de- 
votion full of fervor. He went through all his christian 
duties with the greatest attention. He loved all man- 
kind, and if ever he felt a motion of indignation, it was 
against the enemy of religion, particularly against the 
declared apostles of infidelity. Against the objections 
of these men, he defended revelation, in a work pub- 
lished at Berlin in 1747.” 


Philosophers and Scientists. 351 


ARNOLD H. GUYOT, PH.D., LL.D., M.N.A.S. 


Few, if any, scientific men have been more devoted to 
the study of nature than Professor Guyot. His re- 
searches, particularly in regard to the construction and 
arrangements of the earth, have commanded universal 
admiration, and nearly every scientific associatiom in the 
world has paid him high homage. In his great work, 
the Physical Geography, which Agassiz pronounced one 
of the greatest books on science ever published, he makes 
the following remarks: 

“The earth, as the subject of geographical science, 
may be regarded in two different points of view: first, in 
itself, as a master-piece of Divine workmanship, perfect 
in all its parts and conditions; and secondly, in its pur- 
pose, as the abode of man, the scene of his activity, and 
the means of his development.” 

‘“‘A careful study of physical geography tends to lead 
the mind to the conclusion that the great geographical 
constituents of our planet—the solid land, the ocean, and 
the atmosphere—are mutually dependent and connected 
by incessant action and re-action upon one another; and 
hence, that the earth is really a wonderful mechanism, 
all parts of which work together harmoniously, to accom- 
plish the purpose assigned to it by an All-wise Creator.” 

‘The earth, vast as it seems to the feeble mind of 
man, is only one of the smaller members of a little family 
of planets. The sun, the all-controlling center of this 
family, with a multitude of other suns, forms one group 
of stars in the immensity of the visible heavens; while 
the measureless firmament itself is filled with myriads of 


352 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


star clusters, which ‘declare the glory of God,’ and 
“show forth his handiwork.’ ” 

“he conclusion is irresistible—that the entire globe 
is a grand organism, every feature of which is the out- 
growth of a definite plan of the All-wise Creator for the 
education of the human family, and the manifestation of 
his own glory.” 

In the same work, his Physical Geography, when 
treating of the unity of the races, Guyot observes : 

“A comparison of the different tribes and races of 
men, reveals the fact of a gradual modification of types, 
on every side of the central or highest race, until, by in- 
sensible degrees, the lowest and most degraded forms of 
humanity are reached. Again: in the central race,— 
among the individuals of which there is greater diversity 
in form, features, temperament, and mental characteristics, 
than in any other,—there are persons of pure blood who 
show, in a less degree, almost every distinguishing fea- 
ture of each of the lower races. These facts establish a 
bond of union among all the varieties of mankind, how- 
ever remote they may appear to be from the most noble 
type. They also seem to indicate that the white is the 
normal race, from which the others have gradually 
deviated.” 

“ Speaking of the Semites, a branch of the White race, 
he says: “They were the guardians of the ancient 
revelations.” ‘They gave to the world in succession 
the simple religion of the patriarchs, the Mosaic ritual, 
and Christianity, the fundamental principle of modern 
civilization.” | 

Speaking of the Indo-Europeans, another branch of 
the White race, particularly of Greco-Latins, he says: 


Philosophers and Scientists. 3538 


“The Christian civilization of modern times finds its 
highest expression among the northern branches of the 
same family.” 

‘Christianity only germinated in western Asia. Trans- 
planted to Europe, it gradually attained its full develop- 
ment, and became the foundation on which is reared the 
vast and noble edifice of modern civilization.” 

“America, with her cultured and progressive people, 
and her social organization, founded upon the principle 
of the equality and brotherhood of all mankind, seems 
destined to furnish the most complete expression of the 
Christian civilization; and to become the fountain of a 
new and higher life for all the races of men.” 

Speaking of the Negro race, he says: “They have, 
by themselves, made only the first steps in civilization, 
and the great mass are still in the savage state. Where 
they have been brought under the influence of the cul- 
tured nations, however, they have shown themselves 
capable of a high degree’ of progress. A colony of 
American Negroes have successfully organized the Re- 
public of Liberia, on the west coast of Africa, which 
gives promise of doing an important part in the work of 
Christianizing and civilizing this great and rich con- 
tinent.” | 

PIERRE SIMON DE LA PLACE. 

Next to the illustrious Newton in philosophic research 
and discovery, was La Place, the French mathematician 
and astronomer. His Mécanique Céleste attracted uni- 
versal attention amongst educated men, and gained a 
reputation but little inferior to Newton’s immortal Prin- 
cipia. He also published other valuable works on scien- 

39 


354 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


tific subjects. He lived during the terrible period of the 
great atheistical revolution, and subsequently recorded the 
following truthful statement: “Ihave lived long enough 
to know what I did not at one time believe—that no so- 
ciety can be upheld in happiness and honor without the 
sentiment of religion.” 


JOHN LOCKE. 

John Locke, the illustrious metaphysician, applied the 
great principle of Bacon’s inductive philosophy to the 
human mind, and the result was, the true elements of 
mental science were fixed on an immovable basis. His 
profound work, the Conduct of the Human Understand- 
ing, will endure to the last ages of time. And yet amid 
all his investigations into the powers and capabilities of the 
mind, he ever kept religion as his guiding star. Besides 
his philosophical labors, he spent fourteen years of his 
life in preparing his Common-Place Book to the Bible, 
wherein the substance of Scripture respecting doctrine, 
worship and manners, is reduced to its proper heads. In 
his Preface to this work, he remarks: 

“The perfection, the fullness, the comprehension of 
the holy Scriptures is truly astonishing. The knowledge 
most mysterious and profound is there exhibited to us; 
the truths most useful and necessary are there unfolded 
to us; the precepts most pure and perfective of man- 
kind—of which the great secretaries of nature, in their 
four thousand years’ improvement, gave us little besides 
blunders and blotted paper—are there recommended, 
nay, and demonstrated too, as they are exemplified in 
the conduct of all those who have had the common un- 
derstanding and the grace to be governed by their di- 


Philosophers and Scientists. 855 


rections; so that the sciolists and empirics who have - 
sifted their sufficiency, and in contradiction to St. Paul, 
‘say: ‘The foolishness of man is wiser than God,’ are 
of all creatures the most ridiculous. But the great an- 
tipathy which a thoughtless tribe among us professes 
against the Scriptures, is best accounted for from hence: 
because they make us acquainted with ourselves, and 
teach us sundry unfashionable duties which men are de- 
termined never to copy after; and therefore, as it hap- 
pens in many other cases, the na: being sone 
them, they are against the Scriptures.” 

In another part of his writings, Locke remarks: ‘In 
morality there are books enough written both by ancient. 
and modern philosophers, but the morality of the Gospel 
doth so exceed them all, that to give a man a full knowl- 
edge of true morality, I shall send him to no other book 
than the New Testament.” : 

On one occasion, a relative inquired of this illustrious 
metaphysician what was the shortest and surest way for 
a young man to attain a true knowledge of the Christian 
religion. He replied in these golden words: “ Let him 
study the Holy Scripture, especially in the New Testa- 
ment. Therein are contained the words of eternal life. 
It has God for its Author, salvation for its end, and 
truth without any mixture of error for its matter.” 

Notwithstanding Locke’s great powers of mind, he 
humbly acknowledged the imperfection of his own reason, 
and the sufficiency of revelation. He remarks: “I 
gratefully receive and rejoice in the light of revelation, 
which has set-me at rest in many things, the manner 
whereof my poor reason can by no means make out to me.” 


356 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


MATTHEW F. MAURY, LL.D. 


Dr. Maury, a distinguished American naval officer, 
astronomer, and hydrographer, once made the significant 
remark: “I have always found in my scientific studies, 
‘that when I could get the Bible to say any thing upon 
the subject, it afforded me a firm platform to stand upon, 
and a round in the ladder by which I could safely ascend.” 


ISAAC NEWTON. 


The great principle of Bacon’s inductive philosophy 
was applied by Sir Isaac Newton to the whole system of 
creation, and the result was the discovery of the grand 
law of universal gravitation—a discovery that has 
never been equaled and will never be excelled. The 
character of this illustrious philosopher is thus given by 
Hume, the historian: “In Newton, this island may boast 
of having produced the greatest and rarest genius that 
ever rose for the ornament and instruction of the human 
species. Cautious in admitting no principles but such as 
were founded on experiment; but resolute to adopt every 
such principle, however new or unusual: from modesty, 
ignorant of his superiority above the rest of mankind ; 
and thence less careful to accommodate his reasonings to 
common apprehensions: more anxious to merit than to 
acquire fame: he was, from these causes, long unknown 
to the world; but his reputation at last broke out with a 
luster, which scarcely any writer, during his own life- 
time, had ever before attained.” And yet this great genius, 
so rigid in investigation, and so careful in reaching re- 
sults, was a decided Christian. Hear his own expressive 
language: 


Philosophers and Scientists. 857 


‘We account the Scriptures of God to be the most 
sublime philosophy. I find more sure marks of authen- - 
ticity in the Bible than in any profane history what- 
ever.” 

He was no less a student of the volume of Inspiration 
than of the volume of nature; and was so interested in 
the former, that he wrote a work, showing vast learning 
and research, on the Prophecies of Daniel and the 
Apocalypse. ‘ 

On one occasion, the celebrated Dr. Halley was advo- 
cating infidelity in the presence of the great philosopher, 
when he thus mildly yet firmly reproved him : “ Dr. Hal- 
ley, I am always glad to hear you when you speak about 
astronomy or other parts of the mathematics, because 
that is a subject you have studied, and well understand ; 
but you should not talk of Christianity, for you have not 
studied it. I have, and am certain that you know noth- 
ing of the matter.” This reproof of Newton’s has the 
more importance attached to it from the fact that early 
in life he was skeptical, and became a christian from 
thorough and careful examination. 

It is also related of this illustrious man that his mind 
was so overwhelmed with the idea of the greatness and 
majesty of the Architect of the universe, after carefully 
surveying its complicated and wonderful machinery, that 
he never mentioned the Divine name without making a 
pause after it. 

Treating of the construction and movements of the 
heavenly bodies, Newton expressed the conviction that 
‘“‘the admirable arrangement of the solar system can not 
but be the work of an intelligent and most powerful 
Being.” : 


858 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


He expresses the same conviction, in language still 
more explicit, declaring that the various parts of the 
universe, organic and inorganic, “can be the effect of 
nothing else than the wisdom and skill of a powerful, 
ever-living Agent, who, being in all places, is more able 
by¥ his will to move the bodies within his boundless, uni- 
form sensorium, thereby to form and reform the parts of 
the universe, than we are by our will to move the parts 
of our own bodies.” 

Referring to the reproduction or remodeling of the 
works of nature, he remarks, “The growth of new sys- 
tems out of old ones, without the mediation of a divine 
Power, seems to me apparently absurd.” 

He concludes his great work, the Principia, with some . 
reflections on the nature of the Supreme Cause, and, from 
the structure of the universe, draws the inference, “ that 
it is governed by one almighty and all-wise Being, who 
rules the world, not as its soul, but as its Lord, exercis- 
ing an absolute sovereignty over the universe, not as 
over his own body, but as over its work; and acting in 
it according to his pleasure, without suffering any thing 
from it.” 

WILLIAM WHISTON. 

Whiston, the distinguished scholar and successor to 
Newton, as Professor of Mathematics in the University 
of Cambridge, was author of a book entitled A Theory 
of the Harth, and various works of a religious character. 
The following is a summary of his reasons for being a be- 
liever in revealed religion : : 

“The revealed religion of the Jews and Christians lays 
the law of nature for its foundation; and all along sup- 


‘ Philosophers and Scientists. 359 


ports and assists natural religion; as every true revela- 
tion ought to do. 

“Astronomy, and the rest of our certain mathematic 
sciences, do confirm the accounts of scripture, so far as 
they are concerned. 

“The ancientest and best historical accounts now 
known, do confirm the accounts of scripture, so far as 
they are concerned. 

“The more learning has increased, the more certain, 
in general, do the scripture accounts appear, and its 
difficult places are more cleared thereby. 

“There are, or have been, standing memorials pre- 
served of the certain truths of the principal historical 
facts, which were constant evidences of the certainty of 
them. 

‘‘ Neither the Mosaical law, nor the christian religion, 
could possibly have been received and established with- 
out such miracles as the sacred history contains. 

“Although the Jews all along hated and persecuted the 
prophets of God; yet were they forced to believe they 
were true prophets, and their writings of divine inspira-— 
tion. 

“The ancient and present states of the Jewish nation 
are arguments for the truth of their law, and of the 
scripture prophecies relating to them. 

“The ancient and present states of the christian 
church are also strong arguments for the truth of the 
gospel, and of the scripture prophecies relating thereto. 

“The miracles, whereon the Jewish and christian re- 
ligions are founded, were of old owned to be true by their 
very enemies. 

“The sacred writers, who lived in times and places so 


860 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


remote from one another, do yet all carry on one and the 
same grand design; namely, that of the salvation of man- 
kind, by the worship of, and obedience to, the one true 
God, in and through the king Messiah; which, without a 
divine conduct, could never have been done. 

“The principal doctrines of the Jewish and Christain 
religions are agreeable to the most ancient traditions of 
all other nations. 

“The difficulties relating to this religion are not such 
as affect the truth of the facts, but the conduct of Provi- 
dence; the reasons of which the sacred writers never 
pretend fully to know, or to reveal to mankind. 

‘Natural religion, which is yet so certain in itself, is 
not without such difficulties as to the conduct of Provi- 
dence, as are objected to revelation. 

“The sacred history has the greatest marks of truth, 
honesty, and impartiality of all other histories whatso- 
ever; and withal has none of the known marks of knavery 
and imposture. 

“The predictions of scripture have been still fulfilled 
in the several stages of the world whereto they belong. 

‘No opposite system of the universe, or schemes of 
divine revelation, have any tolerable pretenses to be true, 
but those of the Jews and Christians. 

‘These are the plain and obvious arguments, which 
persuade me of the truth of the Jewish and Christian 
revelations.” 


BRITISH SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION. 
In 1831 the British Association for the Advancement 
of Science was established by Sir David Brewster and 
others; and while all its members are not necessarily 


Philosophers and Scientists. 361 


scientists, yet an overwhelming majority of them are the 
highest scientists in the world. This Association, in 
1865, drew up a paper which was signed by six hundred 
and seventeen members, twenty only of whom were not 
recognized men of science, setting forth their views on 
the relations between science and religion, and how these 
relations should be treated. This important paper is’ 
accessible to any one in the Bodleian Library in Oxford, 
England, and is as follows: 

“‘ We, the undersigned students of the natural sciences, 
desire to express our sincere regret that researches into 
scientific truth are perverted by some, in our own times, 
into occasions for casting doubt upon the truth and 
authenticity of the Holy Scriptures. 

““We conceive that it is impossible for the Word of 
God, as written in the book of Nature, and God’s Word 
written in Holy Scripture, to contradict one another, 
however much they may appear to differ. 

“We are not forgetful that physical science is not 
complete, but is only in a condition of progress, and that 
at present our finite reason enables us only to see as 
through a glass darkly; and we confidently believe that 
a time will come when the two records will be seen to 
agree in every particular. 

‘We can not but deplore that natural science should 
be looked upon with suspicion by many who do not make 
a study of it, merely on account of the unadvised man- 
ner in which some are placing it in opposition to Holy 
Writ. 

““ We believe it is the duty of every scientific student 
to investigate Nature simply for the purpose of elucidat- 

31 


362 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


ing truth, and that, if he finds that some of his results 
appear to be in contradiction to the written Word, or 
rather to his own interpretation of it, which may be 
erroneous, he should not presumptuously affirm that his 
own conclusions must be right, and statements of Scrip- 
ture wrong. Rather leave the two side by side till it 
shall please God to allow us to see the manner in which 
they may be reconciled; and instead of insisting upon 
the seeming differences between science and the Scrip- 
tures, it would be as well to rest in faith upon the 
points in which they agree.” 


PHYSICIANS. » 


WILLIAM B. CARPENTER, M.D., LL.D., F.R.S., F.L.S., F.G.8. 


The unfair course pursued by some scientific men in 
arraying the facts of science against the truths of the 
Bible was admirably rebuked by the talented Dr. W. B. 
Carpenter, President of the British Association for the 
Advancement of Science, in his excellent address on 
retiring from the chair. He says: 

“When science, passing beyond its own limits, assumes 
to take the place of theology, and sets up its own con- 
ception of the order of nature, as a sufficient account of 
its cause, it is invading a province of thought to which 
it has no claim.” ‘To set up these laws as self-acting, 
and as either excluding or rendering unnecessary the 
Power which alone can give them effect, appears to me 
as arrogant as it is unphilosophical. To speak of any 
law as regulating or governing phenomena, is only per- 


Physicians. 363 


missible on the assumption that the law is the expression 
of the modus operandi of the governing Power.” 

Dr. Carpenter also remarks: “All our science is but 
an investigation of the mode in which the Creator acts: 
its highest laws are but expressions of the mode in which 
he manifests his agency to us. He is the efficient Cause 
alike for the simplest and most minute, and of the most 
complicated and most majestic phenomena of the 
universe.” 

GEORGE CHEYNE, M.D. 

Dr. George Cheyne, an eminent Scotch physician, 
wrote on a variety of subjects. Among his works are, 
Philosophical Principles of Natural Religion, and a 
Treatise on Nervous Disorders. He thus speaks of the 
beneficial influence of religion in promoting health: 
“The love of God, as it is the sovereign remedy of all 
misery, so, in particular, it effectually prevents all the 
bodily disorders the passions introduce, by keeping the 
passions themselves within due bounds; and by the un- 
speakable joy and perfect calm, serenity, and tranquillity, 
it gives the mind, becomes the most powerful of all the 
means of health and long life.” 


‘JOHN MASON GOOD. 


John Mason Good, a profound thinker and erudite 
scholar of the present century, wrote an admirable work, 
entitled the Book of Nature. Toward the close, he 
says: ‘The Bible, indeed, which is the first book we 
should prize, and the last we should part with, is as much 
superior to all other books, whether of ancient or modern 
times, in its figurative and attractive dress, as it is in its 
weighty and oracular doctrines; in the hopes it enkin- 


364 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


dles, and the fears it arrays. In its exterior as in its 
interior, in its little as in its great, it displays alike its 
divine original.” 

GEORGE MOORE, M.D. 

George Moore, in a work entitled Health, Disease and 
Remedy, remarks: ‘The grand secret of health is to 
be happy at heart. The rules of the New Testament are 
promotive of bodily health, as well as health of soul, 
and they are really sufficient in most cases for the direc- 
tion of appetite in the use of means, and in them we learn 
why we should be temperate, active, holy.” ‘“ Medical 
practitioners can bear ample testimony to the fact, that 
religious feeling, that is, calm resignation to the Supreme 
Will, soothes and tranquillizes the sufferer’s frame more 
than all medical appliances.” 


BENJAMIN RUSH, M.D. 


Benjamin Rush, an eminent physician and also an 
actor in the American Revolution, earnestly advocated 
the daily reading of the Bible in public schools and all 
other institutions of learning. ‘ Before I state my argu- 
ment,’ he said, “in favor of teaching children to read 
by means of the Bible, I shall assume the five following 
propositions : 

“T, That Christianity is the only true and perfect re- 
ligion, and that in proportion as mankind adopt its prin- 
ciples and obey its precepts, they will be wise and happy. 

“TI. That a better knowledge of this religion is to 
be acquired by reading the Bible than in any other way. 

“TIT. That the Bible contains more knowledge nec- 
essary to man in his present state than any other book 
in the world. 


Physicians. 365 


“TV. That knowledge is most durable, and religious 
instruction most useful, when imparted in early life. 

“V. That the Bible, when not read in schools, is 
seldom read in any subsequent period of life.” 

“My arguments in favor of the use of the Bible as a 
school-book are founded, first, in the constitution of the 
human mind. The memory is the first faculty which 
opens in the minds of children. Of how much conse- 
quence, then, must it be to impress it with the great 
truths of Christianity before it is preoccupied with less 
interesting subjects! There is also a peculiar aptitude 
in the minds of children for religious knowledge. I 
have constantly found them, in the first six or seven 
years of their lives, more inquisitive upon religious sub- . 
jects than upon any others; and an ingenious instructor 
of youth has informed me that he has found young chil- 
dren more capable of receiving just ideas upon the most 
difficult tenets of religion than upon the most simple 
branches of human knowledge. 

‘“‘There is a wonderful property in the memory, which 
enables it, in old age, to recover the knowledge it had 
acquired in early life, after it had been apparently for- 
gotten for forty or fifty years. Of how much conse- 
quence, then, must it be to fill the mind with that species 
of knowledge, in childhood and youth, which, when re- 
called in the decline of life, will support the soul under 
the infirmities of age, and smooth the avenues of ap- 
proaching death! The Bible is the only book which is 
capable of affording this support to old age; and it is 
for this reason that we find it resorted to with so much 
diligence and pleasure by such old people as have read it 
in early life. I can recollect many instances of this 


366 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


kind, in persons who discovered no attachment to the 
Bible in the meridian of their life, who have, notwith- 
standing, spent the evening of it reading no other book. 

“My second argument in favor of the use of the Bible 
in schools, is founded upon an implied command of God, 
and upon the practice of several of the wisest nations 
of the world. In the sixth chapter of Deuteronomy we 
find the following words, which are directly to my pur- 
pose: ‘And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all 
thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. 
And these words which I command thee this day shall be 
in thine heart; and thou shalt teach them diligently unto 
thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in 
thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and 
when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.’ 

‘“T have heard it proposed that a portion of the Bible 
should be read every day by the master, as a means of 
instructing children in it. But this is a poor substitute 
for obliging children to read it as a school-book; for by 
this means we insensibly engrave, as it were, its contents 
upon their minds: and it has been remarked that chil- 
dren instructed in this way in the Scriptures seldom 
forget any part of them. They have the same advantage 
over those persons who have only heard the Scriptures 
read by a master, that a man who has worked with the 
tools of a mechanical employment for several years has 
over the man who has only stood a few hours in the work- 
shop and seen the same business carried on by other 
people.” 

Dr. Rush also said, “It is no small triumph to the 
friends of revelation to observe, in this age of infidelity, 
that our religion has been admitted, and even defended, 


Poets. : 367 


by men of the most exalted understanding, and of the 
strongest reasoning powers.” 


ee 


POETS. 


WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 


Bryant, who was one of America’s finest poets, and 
had an excellent reputation abroad, was a decided 
christian believer. A short time before his death, he 
wrote an Introduction to a volume called Thoughts on 
the Religious Life, by the Rev. Dr. Alden, which was 
found lying on the table of his study, subsequent to his | 
death: consequently it furnishes his convictions on the 
subject of religion at the close of his brilliant and use- 
ful career. He remarks, “In my view of the life, the 
teachings, the labors, and the sufferings of the blessed 
Jesus, there can be no admiration too profound, no love 
of which the human heart is capable tov warm, no grati- 
tude too earnest and deep of which he is justly the ob- 
ject. It is with sorrow that my love for Him is so cold, 
and my gratitude so inadequate.” Mr. Bryant adds that 
“if he thought the religion of skepticism were to gather 
strength, and become the dominant view of mankind, he 
should “despair of the fate of mankind in the years 
that are to come.” He trembles “to think what the 
world would be without Christ,” and continues, “Take 
away the blessings of the advent of His life and the 
blessings purchased by His death, in what an abyss of 
guilt would man have been left! It would seem to be 


\ 


368 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


blotting the sun out of the heavens—to leave our system 
of worlds in chaos, frost, and darkness.” 


ROBERT BURNS. 


Burns, the favorite Scotch poet, sometimes called the 
Shakspeare of Scotland, wrote excellent sacred poetry as 
well as secular. His Cotter’s Saturday Night is a much 
admired production, in which family religion and the in- 
fluence of christian homes on a nation’s well-being are 
beautifully portrayed, From this poem, the following 
extracts are taken: 


‘Kneeling down, to Heaven’s eternal King, 
The saint, the father, and the husband prays ! 
Hope ‘springs exulting on triumphant wing,’ 
That thus they all shall meet in future days: 
There, ever bask in uncreated rays, 
No more to sigh or shed the bitter tear, 
Together hymning their Creator's praise, 
In such society, yet still more dear ; 
While circling time moves round in an eternal Paes 


“The parent-pair their secret homage pay, 
And proffer up to Heaven the warm request, 
That he who stills the raven’s clamorous nest, 
And decks the lily fair in flowery pride, 
Would, in the way his wisdom sees the best, 
For them and for their little ones provide, 
But chiefly in their hearts with grace divine preside. 


“O Scotia! my dear, my native soil ! 
For whom my warmest wish to Heaven is sent, 
Long may the hardy sons of rustic toil 
Be blest with health, and peace, and sweet content. 
And, O, may Heaven their simple lives prevent 


Poets. 369 


From luxury’s contagion, weak and vile! 
Then, howe’er crowns and coronets be rent, 
A virtuous populace may rise the while, 
And stand a wall of fire around their much-loved Isle.” 


THOMAS CAMPBELL. 


The Pleasures of Hope and other poems by Thomas 
Campbell are greatly admired for their purity of senti- 
ment, elegance of language, and force of expression, 
The following passage on the absurdities of infidelity is 
from his Pleasures of Hope: 


“Oh! lives there, Heaven! beneath thy dread expanse, 
One hopeless, dark idolater of Chance, 
Content to feed, with pleasures unrefined, 
The lukewarm passions of a lowly mind; 
Who, moldering earthward, ’reft of every trust, 
In joyless union wedded to the dust, 
Could all his parting energy dismiss, 
And call this barren world sufficient bliss? 
There live, alas! of heaven-directed mien, 
Of cultured soul, and sapient eye serene, 
Who hail thee, Man! the pilgrim of a day, 
Spouse of the worm, and brother of the clay, 
Frail as the leaf in Autumn’s yellow bower, 
Dust in the wind, or dew upon the flower ; 
A friendless slave, a child without a sire, 
W hose mortal life, and momentary fire, 
Lights to the grave his chance-created form, 
As ocean-wrecks illuminate the storm; 
And, when the gun’s tremendous flash is o’er, 
To night and silence sink for evermore!”’ 


MATTHIAS CLAUDIUS. 


Matthias Claudius, one of the people’s poets of Ger- 
many, remarks: ‘No one ever thus loved [as Christ 


370 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


did], nor did any thing so truly great and good, as the - 
Bible tells us of him, ever enter into the heart of man. 
It is a holy form, which rises before the poor pilgrim 
like a star in the night, and satisfies his innermost cray- 
ing, his most secret yearnings and hopes.” 


SAMUEL T. COLERIDGE. 


As a poet of fine powers of imagination, and a prose 
writer of superior excellence, Coleridge has been greatly 
admired in the world of literature. His views on re- 
ligion were of a most decided character, and his pro- 
ductions abound with references to the value and influ- 
ence of the Christian system. A few quotations we 
give: 

‘“‘T know the Bible is inspired, because it finds me 
at greater depths of my being than any other book.” 

“Intense study of the Bible will keep any man from 
being vulgar in point of style.” 

“Unless Christianity be viewed and felt in a high and 
comprehensive way, how large a portion of our intel- 
lectual and moral nature does it leave without object 
and action.” 

“Tf aman is not rising upward to be an angel, de- 
pend upon it, he is sinking downward to be a devil. He 
can not stop at the beast. The most savage men are 
not beasts: they are worse—a great deal worse.” 

“Tf you bring up your children in a way which puts 
them out of sympathy with the religious feelings of the 
nation in which they live, the chances are, that they will 


ultimately turn out ruffians, or fanatics, and one as 
likely as the other.” 
“For more than a thousand years, the Bible, col- 


Poets. 371 


lectively taken, has gone hand in hand with civiliza- 
tion, science, law: in short, with moral and intellectual 
cultivation; always supporting, and often leading the 
way. Good and holy men, and the best and wisest of 
mankind, the kingly spirits of history, have borne wit- 
ness to its influences, and have declared it to be beyond 
compare the most perfect instrument of humanity.” 

Toward the close of his life, Coleridge wrote the fol- 
lowing as the result of his wide and varied experience : 
‘“T have known what the enjoyments and advantages of 
this life are, and what the more refined pleasures which 
learning and intellectual power can bestow ; and with 
all the experience that more than threescore years can 
give, I, now on the eve of my departure, declare to you, 
and earnestly pray that you may hereafter live and act 
in the conviction, that health is a great blessing; com- 
petence, obtained by honorable industry, a great bless- 
ing; and a great blessing it is to have kind, faithful, 
and loving friends and relatives ; but that the greatest 
of all blessings, as it is the most ennobling of all privi- 
leges, is to be indeed a Christian.” 


WILLIAM COLLINS. 

Collins, a distinguished English poet, in the latter part 
of his life, withdrew from his general studies, and trav- 
eled with no other book than an English New Testament. 
His friend, Dr. Johnson, while on a visit to the poet, at 
Islington, observed that he was holding a small book in 
his hand. Curious to know what book it was, he in- 
quired ; when the poet replied, “I have only one book, 
but that is the best.” 


372 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the bible. 


ABRAHAM COWLEY. 


Cowley, one of England’s early poets, in common-with 
many others, held the Inspired Volume in high esteem. 
He says: ‘All the books of the Bible are either already 
most admirable and exalted pieces of poetry, or are the 
best materials in the world for it.” 


WILLIAM COWPER. 


No poetry in the world’s literature is more beautiful, 
more simple, more charming, more divine, than Cowper’s. 
Justly has it been said, “It is the honorable distinction 
of Cowper’s poetry, that nothing is to be found to excite 
a blush on the cheek of modesty, nor a single line that 
requires to be blotted. He has done much to introduce 
a purer and more exalted taste. He is the poet of na- 
ture, the poet of the heart and conscience, and, what is 
still higher praise, the poet of Christianity.” Besides 
his Task, and other sublime poems, he composed a num- 
ber of hymns that are sung every sabbath throughout 
christendom. How exalted was his opinion of the Bible, 
the following quotation from the Task fully shows: 

“’Tis Revelation satisfies all doubts, 
Explains all mysteries, except her own, 
And so illuminates the path of life 
That fools discover it, and stray no more. 
Now tell me, dignified and sapient sir, 

My man of morals, nurtured in the shades 

Of Academus, is this false or true? 

Is Christ the abler teacher, or the schools ? 

If Christ, then why resort at every turn 

To Athens, or to Rome, for wisdom short 

Of man’s occasions, when in him reside 

Grace, knowledge, comfort—an unfathomed store ?”’ 


Poets. 373 


JOHN DRYDEN, A.M. 


Dryden, one of England’s popular poets, and for a 
time poet-laureate, presents, in the following lines, the 
difficulty in supposing the writers of the Bible to have 
been dishonest in their purposes and aims: 

“Whence but from heaven, could men unskilled in arts, 
In several ages born, in several parts, 
Weave such agreeing truths, or how, or why, 
Should ali conspire to cheat us with a lie? 
Unasked their pains, ungrateful their advice, 
Starving their gain, and martyrdom their price.” 


OLIVER GOLDSMITH. 


The writings of Goldsmith, whether in prose or verse, 
have commanded great attention. Sir Walter Scott re- 
marks, “He wrote to exalt virtue and expose vice; and 
he accomplished his task in a manner which raises him 
to the highest rank among British authors.” His por- 
trait of the devoted village pastor has been greatly ad- 
mired. The following quotation, from his Animated 
Nature, is well calculated to check hasty conclusions in 
regard to the rectitude of the Divine government: 

‘A use, hitherto not much insisted upon, that may re- 
sult from the contemplation of celestial magnificence, is, 
that it will teach us to make an allowance for the appar- 
ent irregularities we find below. Whenever we can 
examine the works of the Deity at a proper point of dis- 
tance, so as to take in the whole of his design, we see 
nothing but uniformity, beauty, and precision. The 
heavens present us with a plan which, though inexpres- 
sibly magnificent, is yet regular beyond the power of 
invention. Whenever, therefore, we find any apparent 


374 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


defects in the earth, instead of attempting to reason our- 
selves into an opinion that they are beautiful, it will be 
wiser to say, that we do not behold them at.the proper 
point of distance, and that our eye is laid too close to the 
objects to take in the regularity of their connection. In 
short, we may conclude that God, who is regular in his 
great productions, acts with equal uniformity in the 
little, skew 

Goldsmith still further speaks of the rectitude of the 
Divine government, and says: “ Religion does what 
philosophy could never do: it shows the equal dealings 
of Heaven to the happy and the unhappy, and levels all 
human enjoyments to nearly the same standard. It gives 
to both rich and poor the same happiness hereafter, and 
equal hopes to aspire after it.” 


FELICIA D. HEMANS. 


Mrs. Hemans ranks first among female poets. She 
had an intense love of nature. Her style is fluent and 
charming. Some of her productions are replete with 
pathos and sentiment. The Landing of the Pilgrim 
Fathers in New England shows the religious heroism of 
those worthies in a fine light: 


“The breaking waves dashed high 

On a stern and rock-bound coast, 

And the woods against a stormy sky 
Their giant branches tossed; 

And the heavy night hung dark 
The hills and waters o’er, 

When a band of exiles moored their bark 
On the wild New England shore. 


Poets. 379 


“ Not as the conqueror comes, 

They, the true hearted, came 

Not with the roll of the stirring drums, 
And the trumpet that sings of fame; 

Not as the flying come, 
In silence and in fear: 

They shook the depths of the desert gloom 
With their hymns of lofty cheer. 


“Amidst the storm they sang, 

And the stars heard, and the sea, 

And the sounding aisles of the dim woods rang 
To the anthem of the free ! 

The ocean eagle soared 
From his nest by the white wave’s foam; 

And the rocking pines of the forest roared— 
This was their welcome home! 


“There were men with hoary hair 

Amidst that pilgrim band: 

Why had they come to wither there, 
Away from their childhood’s land? 

There was woman’s fearless eye, 
Lit by her deep love’s truth; 

There was manhood’s brow, serenely high, 
And the fiery heart of youth. 


“What sought they thus afar? 

Bright jewels of the mine? 

The wealth of seas, the spoils of war? 
They sought a faith’s pure shrine! 

Ay, call it holy ground, 
The soil where first they trod; 

They have left unstained what there they found— 
Freedom to worship God.” 


Tx Mrs. Hemans’ poem, the Skeptic, are some of the 


376 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


finest strains in the English language, one of which we 
give: 
“When the young eagle, with exulting eye, 
Has learned to dare the splendor of the sky, 
And leave the Alps beneath him in his course, 
To bathe his crest in morn’s empyreal source, 
Will his free wing, from that majestic height, 
Descend to follow some wild meteor’s light 
Which far below, with evanescent fire, 
Shines to delude, and dazzles to expire? 
No! Still through clouds he wins his upward way, 
And proudly claims his heritage of day. 
And shall the spirit on whose ardent gaze 
The day-spring from on high hath poured its blaze, 
Turn from that pure effulgence, to the beam 
Of earth-born light, that sheds a treacherous gleam, 
Luring the wanderer from a star of faith, 
To the deep valley of the shades of death? 
What bright exchange, what treasure shall be given, 
For the high birth-right of its hope of Heaven? 
If lost the gem which empires could not buy, 
What yet remains? A dark eternity. 


WILLIAM HOWITT. 


The Quakers have ever been distinguished both for 
their freedom of speech and independence of action. 
Howitt, one of their poets, delivered a speech in Notting- 
ham, England, in the year 1835; and, while speaking of 
the reforming power of the Bible, he exclaimed, as if his 
lips were touched with the very fires of inspiration : 

“Wherever that book goes, there goes freedom of 

-spirit and opinion. There the peasant learns to feel that 
he is a man, and the man that he is an immortal creature 
—the child of God—the heir of precious rights and a 
deathless hope—a being too good to be trodden on by 


Poets. 377 


priestly pride, or robbed by priestly pretenses. It was 
because the peasants of Scotland had, in every mountain 
glen and lowland hut, listened to the animating topics 
and precious promises of the ‘big old Bible,’ that they 
rose and resisted the attempted encroachments on their 
freedom. And now, throughout England, in city and in 
hamlet, in field and forest, that great charter of man 
is studied, and will cast down every thing that is opposed 
‘to freedom of spirit and independence of purpose. It 
matters not whether it be in church, or in state, the Bible 
is the great reformer. You may mow down whole crops 
of reformers as you would grass, but if you leave the 
root of all reform, the Bible, in the earth, it will raise up 
ten times more. Make what laws and destroy what lib- 
erties you will, if you leave the Bible ‘ree, it will again 
leaven the whole lump of society, and your labor is in 
vain. Itis abroad: it is in every man’s house, on every 
man’s table; and its still small voice is perpetually 
whispering, ‘ Woe to all tyrants, and oppressors of God’s 
children.’ It is the voice of God, and the power of God; 
and against it what voice, or what power, or what wisdom 
of man can prevail? From the Bible breathes on every 
soul near it the eternal sentiments of liberty, independ- 
ence, and contempt of death. While the Bible is free, 
man is free.” 


HENRY W. LONGFELLOW, D.C.L. 

As a poet, Longfellow is greatly admired. He has 
gained a high reputation, not only in America, but also 
in Europe. The following expressive language is from 
his poem, The Children of the Lord’s Supper; and 

32 


378 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


though given as the sentiments of the village pastor, 
they are none the less his own; for he is ever reverential 
when speaking of sacred things: 


“ Blest are the pure before God! Upon purity and upon 

virtue 

Resteth the Christian faith: she herself from on high is de- 
scended. 

Strong as a man and pure as a child, is the sum of the 
doctrine, 

Which the Divine One taught, and suffered and died on the 
cross for.” 


Like all other poets, Longfellow has great hope of the 
world’s renovation : 


‘In the beginning was the Word: 
Athwart the chaos—night, 
It gleamed with quick creative power, 
And there was life and light. 


“Thy Word, O God! is living yet, 
Amid earth's restless strife, 
New harmony creating still, 
And ever higher life. 


“And as that word moves surely on, 
The light, ray after ray, 
Streams farther out athwart the dark, 
And night grows into day. 


“OQ Word that broke the stillness first, 
Sound on! and never cease 
Till all earth’s darkness be made light, 
And all her discord, peace! 


“Till— wail of woe and clank of chain 
And bruit of battle stilled— 


Poets. 379 


The world with thy great music’s pulse, 
O Word of Love! be thrilled ; 


“Till selfish passion, strife, and wrong, 
Thy summons shall have heard, 
And thy creation be complete, 
O Thou Eternal Word.” 


JOHN MILTON, A.M. 


It is universally conceded that John Milton is the 
master poet of all ages and all nations. He had a mind 
of the first order, and it was richly stored with the learn- 
ing of all time. He was independent both in thought 
and action, and radical in his views of church govern- 
ment and state policy. But notwithstanding this, he 
was ever true to the interests of the Christian religion. 
His Paradise Lost is one magnificent unfolding of its 
great truths; and, in his political writings, he most 
earnestly contends for that glorious perfect freedom, 
which the great Teacher so sublimely inculcated. Speak- 
ing of the Inspired Volume, he says: 

‘Let others dread and shun the Scriptures in their 
darkness: I shall wish I may deserve to be reckoned 
among those who admire and dwell upon them for their 
clearness.” | 

“here are no songs comparable to the songs of 
Zion, no orations equal to those of the prophets, and no 
politics like those which the Scriptures teach.” 

Of learning and knowledge, Milton speaks thus most 
correctly: ‘The end of learning is to know God, and, 
out of that knowledge, to love him, and to imitate him, 
as we may the nearest by possessing our souls of true 


virtue.” 


380 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


JAMES MONTGOMERY. 


One of the prominent Christian poets of England was 
James Montgomery. He was a member of the Unitas 
Fratrum, or church of the Moravians, and was one of its 
brightest ornaments. While publishing a newspaper, in 
which he advocated “ the cause of political independence, 
humanity, and freedom,” he was twice imprisoned for his 
liberal sentiments. While in prison, he wrote his poems 
entitled “ Prison Amusements.” In one of his odes, he 
speaks of man’s high position in the scale of being: he 
then refers to man’s constant progression both here and 
hereafter, and asks: 


“What guides him in his high pursuit, 

Opens, illumines, cheers his way, 

Discerns the immortal from the brute 
God's image from the mold of clay? 

Tis knowledge:—Knowledge to the soul 
Is power, and liberty, and peace; 

And while celestial ages roll, 
The joys of Knowledge shall increase. 


‘Hail! to the glorious plan, that spread 
The light with universal beams, 
And through the human desert led 
Truth’s living, pure, perpetual streams. 
Behold a new creation rise, 
New spirit breathed into the clod, 
Where’er the voice of Wisdom cries, 
‘Man, know thyself, and fear thy God.’”’ 


THOMAS MOORE, A.B. 


Moore, the popular Irish poet, and author of various 
works, occasionally wrote pieces of a religious character. 


Poets. 381 


One of his most beautiful gems is on silent, heart-felt 
devotion : : 


As down in the sunless retreats of the ocean, 
Sweet flowers are springing no mortal can see, 
So deep in my soul the still prayer of devotion, 
Unheard by the world, rises silent to thee, 
My God! silent to Thee! 
Pure, warm, silent to Thee! 


“As still to the star of its worship, though clouded, 
The needle points faithfully o’er the dim sea, 
So dark as I roam o’er this wintry world shrouded, 
The hope of my spirit turns trembling to Thee, 
My God! trembling to Thee! 
True, fond, trembling to Thee!” 


GEORGE P. MORRIS. 


George P. Morris, an American poet, wrote several 
minor poems, of which the following, entitled My 
Mother’s Bible, is the most admired : 


“This book is all that’s left me now, 

Tears will unbidden start, 

With.faltering lip and throbbing brow 
I press it to my heart. 

For many generations past 
Here is our family tree: 

My mother’s hands this Bible clasped, 
She, dying, gave it me. 


“Ah! well do I remember those 
Whose names these records bear, 
Who round the hearthstone used to close, 
After the evening prayer, 
And speak of what these pages said 
In tones my heart would thrill! 


382 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


Though they are with the silent dead, 
Here are they living sti]! 


‘“ My father read this holy book 
To brothers, sisters, dear: 
How calm was my poor mother’s look, 
Who loved God’s word to hear! 
Her angel face—I see it yet! 
What thronging memories come! 
Again that little group is met 
Within the halls of home! 


“Thou truest friend man ever knew, 

Thy constancy I've tried: 

When all were false, I found thee true, 
My counselor and guide. 

The mines of earth no treasures give 
That could this volume buy: 

In teaching me the way tu live, 
It taught me how to die!” 


ROBERT POLLOK. 


Pollok’s Course of Time is a remarkable poem, written 
by a young Scotch clergyman of fine intellect and cul- 
tivated mind, who died at the early age of twenty-eight. 
Probably no poet has more forcibly portrayed the beau- 
ties of virtue and the deformities of vice. Passages of 
sublimity occur of the highest order. Tn the following, 
his exalted opinion of the Bible is shown : 


‘Most wondrous Book! bright candle of the Lord! 
Star of eternity! the only star 
By which the bark of man could navigate 
The sea of life, and gain the coast of bliss 
Securely; only star which rose on time, 
And, on its dark and troubled billows, still, 
As generation, drifting swiftly by, 
Succeeded generation, threw a ray 


Poets. 383 


Of Heaven’s own light, and to the hills of God, 
The everlasting hills, pointed the sinner’s eye: 
By prophets, seers, and priests, and sacred bards, 
Evangelists, apostles, men inspired, 

And by the Holy Ghost annointed, set 

Apart, and consecrated to declare 

To earth the counsels of the Eternal One, 

This book, this holiest, this sublimest book, 

Was sent.” 


“The following figure of Mercy,” says a critic, in 
reference to the revelation of the Bible, “is very fine :”’ 


‘This Book, this holy book, on every line 
Marked with the seal of high Divinity, 
On every leaf bedewed with drops of love 
Divine, and with the eternal heraldry 
And signature of God Almighty stampt 
From first to last—this ray of sacred light— 
This lamp, from off the eternal throne, 
Mercy took down, and, in the night of time, 
Stood, casting on the dark her gracious bow; 
And evermore beseeching men, with tears 
And earnest sighs, to read, believe, and live: 
And many to her voice gave ear, and read, 
Believed, obeyed.” 


ALEXANDER POPE. 
Among the poets, Alexander Pope holds a high rank. 


“His elegance,” says a critic, ‘“ has never been surpassed, 
or perhaps equaled: it is a combination of intellect, im- 
agination, and taste, under the direction of an independ- 
ent spirit and refined moral feeling.” Through life he 
was a professed believer in the christian religion, and a 
short time before his death remarked: “TI am so certain 
of the soul’s being immortal, that I seem to feel it within 


384 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


me, as it were by intuition ;” so that his much-admired 
poem, The Dying Christian to his Soul, is not a mere 
poetical effusion, but an utterance of his heart-felt belief. 


‘Vital spark of heavenly flame, 
Quit, oh quit this mortal frame: 
Trembling, hoping, lingering, flying, 
Oh the pain, the bliss of dying! 
Cease, fond nature, cease thy strife, 
And let me languish into life! 


‘Hark! they whisper—angels say, 
Sister spirit, come away ! 
What is this absorbs me quite? 
Steals my senses, shuts my sight, 
Drowns my spirits, draws my breath? 
Tell me, my soul, can this be death? 


“The world recedes: it disappears: 
Heaven opens on my eyes! my ears 
With sounds seraphie ring! 
Lend, lend your wings! I mount! I fly! 
O Grave! where is thy victory? 
O Death! where is thy sting?’ 


Pope had an exalted idea of the sublimity of the Sacred 
Writings. Comparing the discovery of Ulysses to Telem- 
achus, with Joseph’s making himself known to his breth- 
ren, he says: 

“Tt must be owned that Homer falls infinitely short 
of Moses. He must be a very wicked man that can read 
the history of Joseph without the utmost touches of com- 
passion and transport. There is a majestic simplicity 
in the whole relation, and such an affecting portrait of 
human nature, that it overwhelms us with vicissitudes of 
joy and sorrow. This is a pregnant instance how much 


Poets. 385 


the best of heathen writers is inferior to the divine his- 
torian upon a parallel subject, where the two authors 
endeavor to move the softer passions. The same may 
with equal truth be said in respect to sublimity ; not 
only in the instance produced by Longinus, namely, 
‘Let there be light, and there was light,’ ‘Let the earth 
be made, and the earth was made;’ but in general, in 
the more elevated parts of Scripture, and particularly 
in the whole book of Job, which, with regard to sub- 
limity of thought and morality, exceeds beyond all com- 
parison the most noble parts of Homer.” 

One of the grandest poems in the world’s literature is 
Pope’s “ Messiah, a Sacred Eclogue composed of several 
passages of Isaiah the Prophet.” It refers to the ad- 
vent of Christ and the glory and felicity of his reign. 
Virgil’s Pollio is an eclogue taken from a sibylline 
prophecy relative to a future prosperous age; but Pope 
remarks: ‘“ ‘The images and descriptions of the Prophet 
are far superior to those of the poet.” For splendor of 
diction and harmony of rhythm Pope’s paraphrase is 
certainly most admirable; and it only shows what force 
and beauty there are in Bible truth when presented in 
classical language’: 


“Ye nymphs of Solyma! begin the song: 
To heavenly themes sublimer strains belong. 
The mossy fountains and the sylvan shades, 
The dreams of Pindus and the Aonian maids, 
Delight no more. © thou my voice inspire, 
Who touched Isaiah’s hallowed lips with fire! 


“ Rapt into future times, the bard begun: 
A virgin shall conceive, a virgin bear a son! 


33 


386 


Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


From Jesse’s root behold a branch arise, 

Whose sacred flower with fragrance fills the skies. 
The ethereal Spirit o’er its leaves shall move, 
And on its top descends the mystic Dove. 

Ye heavens! from high the dewy nectar pour, 
And in soft silence shed the kindly shower ! 

The sick and weak the healing plant shall aid, 
From storms a shelter, and from heat a shade. 
All crimes shall cease, and ancient fraud shall fail; 
Returning justice lift aloft her scale; 

Peace o’er the world her olive wand extend 

And white-robed Innocence from heaven descend. 
Swift fly the years, and rise the expected morn! 
Oh, spring to light, auspicious Babe be born ! 
See, nature hastes her earliest wreaths to bring, 
With all the incense of the breathing spring! 
See lofty Lebanon his head advance! 

See nodding forests on the mountains dance! 
See spicy clouds from lowly Sharon Tige, 

And Carmel’s flowery top perfume the skies! 
Hark! a glad voice the lonely desert cheers: 
Prepare the way! a God, a God appears: : 

A God, a God! the vocal hills reply ; 

And rocks proclaim the approaching Deity. 

Lo! earth receives him from the bending skies! 
Sink down ye mountains, and ye valleys rise ! 
With heads declined, ye cedars homage pay ; 

Be smooth ye rocks; ye rapid floods give way ! 
The Savior comes! by ancient bards foretold ; 
Hear him, ye deaf; and all ye blind, behold! 

He from thick films shall purge the visual ray, 
And on the sightless eyeball pour the day: 

'Tis he the obstructed paths of sound shall clear, 
And bid new music charm the unfolding ear: 
The dumb shall sing, the lame his crutch forego, 
And leap exulting like the bounding roe. 

No sigh, no murmur, the wide world shall hear: 
From every face he wipes off every tear. 


Poets. 


In adamantine chains shall death be bound; 
And hell’s grim tyrant feel the eternal wound. 
As the good shepherd tends his fleecy care, 
Seeks freshest pasture and the purest air; 
Explores the lost, the wandering sheep directs, 
By day o’ersees them, and by night protects; 
The tender lambs he raises in his arms, 

Feeds from his hand, and in his bosom warms; 
Thus shall mankind his guardian care engage, 
The promised Father of the future age. 

No more shall nation against nation rise; 

Nor ardent warriors meet with hateful eyes; 
Nor fields with gleaming steel be covered o’er; 
The brazen trumpets kindle rage no more; 

But useless lances into scythes shall bend, 

And the broad falchion in a ploughshare end. 
Then palaces shall rise: the joyful son 

Shall finish what his short-lived sire begun: 
Their vines a shadow to their race shall yield, 
And the same hand that sowed, shall reap the field. 
The swain in barren deserts with surprise 

Sees lilies spring, and sudden verdure rise; 
And starts, amidst the thirsty wilds to hear 
New falls of water murmuring in his ear. ° 

On rifted rocks, the dragon’s late abodes, 

The green reed trembles, and the bulrush nods. 
Waste sandy valleys, once perplexed with thorn, 
The spiry fir and shapely box adorn: 

To leafless shrubs the flowering palms succeed, 
And odorous myrtle to the noisome weed. 

The lambs with wolves shall graze the verdant mead, 
And boys in flowery bands the tiger lead: 

The steer and lion at one crib shall meet, 

And harmless serpents lick the pilgrim’s feet. 
The smiling infant in his hand shall take 

The crested basilisk and speckled snake; 
Pleased the green luster of the scales survey, 
And with their forky tongue shall innocently play. 


387 


388 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


Rise, crowned with light, imperial Salem, rise! 
Exalt thy towery head, and lift thy eyes ! 

See a long race thy spacious courts adorn ; 

See future sons and daughters yet unborn, 

In crowding ranks on every side arise, 
Demanding life, impatient for the skies! 

See barbarous nations at thy gates attend, 
Walk in thy light, and in thy temple bend! 

See thy bright altars thronged with prostrate kings, 
And heaped with products of Sabean springs! 
For thee Idumea’s spicy forests blow, 

And seeds of gold in Ophir’s mountains glow. 
See heaven its sparkling portals wide display, 
And break upon thee in a flood of day! 

No more the rising sun shall gild the morn, 

Nor evening Cynthia fill her silver horn ; 

But lost, dissolved in thy superior rays, 

One tide of glory, one unclouded blaze, 

O’erflow thy courts: the Light himself shall shine 
Revealed, and God's eternal day be thine! 

The seas shall waste, the skies in smoke decay, 
Rocks fall to dust, and mountain’s melt away ; 
But fixed his word, his saving power remains: 
Thy realm forever lasts, thy own Messiah reigns fv 


As some may desire to see the passages of the prophet 
Isaiah which Pope has so spiritedly paraphrased, they 
are here given: chapter xi, verse 1; xlv, 8; xxv, 4; ix, 
Y XXX Vy) 1a el, ONE shit 18, ail TE5¥.< 0, Os oxy, 
8% xl dd ix. 03 13 co 7.5 EEG Es oo a dgal Ss 7; oe 19, 
and lv, 13; xi, 6, 7, 8: berks ede }x33 lec Gls BS: 
20; 1i, 6; and liv, 10. 


MATTHEW PRIOR. 


Prior, author of a poem entitled Solomon, was a great 
admirer of the literary productions of the wise man. 


Poets. 889 


He remarks: “The writings of Solomon afford subjects 
for finer poems in every kind, than have yet appeared in 
the Greek, Latin, or any modern language.” 


WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE. 


Shakspeare has been called “the poet of nature.” 
His productions are numerous and varied. He wrote 
chiefly for the stage, and yet toward the close of his 
career he complained in a sonnet that it had been his lot 
to follow a theatrical life. In his writings, he frequently 
speaks of religion—its duties and exccllences, in ex- 
pressive language. The following extract is from his 
will: 

‘““T commend my soul into the hands of God, my Cre- 
ator, hoping and assuredly believing, through the only 
merits of Jesus Christ, my savioer, to be made partaker 
of life everlasting; and my body to the earth whereof it 
is made.” 

The quotations which follow show how highly he re- 
spected religious truth: 


‘““There’s a Divinity that shapes our ends.” 


‘Heaven is above all: there sits a judge 
That no king can corrupt.” 


“If men have defeated the law, and outrun native pun- 
ishment, though they can outstrip men, they have no 
wings to fly from God.” 


‘‘He that doth the ravens feed, 
Yea, providently caters for the sparrow, 
[ Yea, providently notices the sparrow, | 
Be comfort to my age.” 


“ Heaven, the widow’s champion and defense.” 


390 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


“Tf powers divine 
Behold our human actions (as they do), 
I doubt not then, but innocence shall make 
False accusation blush, and tyranny 
Tremble at patience.” 


“Now, God be praised! that to believing souls 
Gives light in darkness, comfort in despair.” 


‘‘God shall be my hope, 
My stay, my guide, and lantern to my feet.” 


“T shall be well content with any choice 
Tends to God’s glory and my country’s weal.” 


‘Let never day nor night unhallowed pass, 
But still remember what the Lord hath done.” 


“Heaven set open thy everlasting gates 
To entertain my vows of thanks and praise.” 


“We, ignorant of ourselves, 
Beg often our own harms, which the wise powers 
Deny us for our own good: so find we profit, 
By losing of our prayers.” 


“My words fly up, my thoughts remain below: 
Words, without thoughts, never to heaven go, 


“The quality of mercy is not strained: 
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven 
Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest: 
It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes. 
’Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes 
The throned monarch better than his crown: 
His scepter shows the force of temporal power— 
The attribute to awe and majesty, 
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings; 
But mercy is above the sceptred sway : 
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings: 
It is an attribute to God himself. 


Poets. 391 


And earthly power doth then show likest God's, 
When mercy seasons justice. Consider this, 
That in the course of justice, none of us 

Should see salvation. We do pray for mercy ; 
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render 
The deeds of mercy.” 


“TJ charge thee fling away ambition: 
By that sin fell the angels: how can man then, 
The image of his Maker, hope to win by it? 
Love thyself last: cherish those hearts that hate thee; 
Corruption wins not more than honesty. 
Still in thy right hand carry gentle peace, 
To silence envious tongues. Be just, and fear not, 
Let all the ends thou aim’st at, be thy country’s, 
Thy God's, and truth’s.” 


“Tt is religion that doth make vows kept.” 


“Tgnorance is the curse of God: 
Knowledge the wing wherewith we fly to heaven.” 


“T held it ever, 
Virtue and knowledge are endowments greater 
Than nobleness and riches: careless heirs 
May the two latter darken and expend; 
But immortality attends the former 
Making a man a god.” 


“'Tis a vile thing to die 
When men are unprepared, and look not for Tie) 


“ Ah what a sign it is of evil life 
When death’s approach is seen so terrible.” 


“T myself will lead a private life, 
And in devotion spend my latter days, 
To sin’s rebuke, and my Creator's praise.” 


“T every day expect an embassage 
From my Redeemer to redeem me hence.” 


392 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


“ Holy 
Men at death, have good inspirations.” 


‘The immortal part needs a physician: 
Though that be sick, it dies not.” 


‘“ Heaven, 
The treasury of everlasting joy.” 


LYDIA H. SIGOURNEY. 


Mrs. Sigourney’s poetry is so elevated in its style and 
so pure in its character, that she has been called The 
American Hemans. She early engaged in teaching ; and, 
besides her poems, wrote several instructive books, essays, 
and letters for the young. The advantages of being a 
Christian, she paints with great beauty in one of her ex- 
quisite poems: : 


“Art thou a Christian? Though thy cot 
Be rude, and poverty thy lot, 
A wealth is thine, which earth denies, 
A treasure boundless as the skies; 
Gold and the diamond fade with shame 
Before thy casket’s deathless flame: 
Heir of high heaven! how canst thou sigh 
For gilded dross and vanity. 


“Art thou a Christian, doomed to roam 
Far from thy friends and native home? 
O'er trackless wilds uncheered to go, 
With none to share an exile’s woe? 
Where’er thou find'st a Father’s care, 
Thy country and thy home are there: 
How canst thou, then, a stranger be, 
Surrounded by His family ? 


Poets. * 393 


“Art thou a Christian, mid the strife 
Of years mature and burdened life? 
Thy heaven-born faith its shield shall spread 
To guard thee in the hour of dread: 
Thorns mid thy flinty path may spring, 
Dire pain inflict its scorpion sting; 
But in thy soul a beacon light 
Shall guide thy pilgrim steps aright ; 
And balm from God's own fountain flow 
To heal the wounds of earthly woe.” 


JAMES THOMSON. 


As a painter of the beauties of nature, no poet sur- 
passes Thomson. His poem, The Seasons, has been a 
favorite with all men of cultivated mind. Through the 
entire work he constantly refers to nature’s great Author. 
The Hymn at the close is a sublime effusion of devotional 
feeling. After speaking of the grateful change of the 
seasons—of the “rolling year” as being “full of God,” 
he thus refers to man’s irreverence : 


“But wandering oft, with brute unconscious gaze, 
Man marks not Thee, marks not the mighty Hand, 
That, ever busy, wheels the silent spheres; 

Works in the secret deep; shoots, steaming, thence 
The fair profusion that o’erspreads the spring; 
Flings from the sun direct the flaming day ; 

Feeds every creature; hurls the tempest forth; 
And, as on earth this grateful change revolves, 
With transport touches all the springs of life.’ 


’ 


He then calls on universal nature to engage in adora- 
tion and praise, and expresses his own noble deter- 
mination: 


394 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


“For me, when I forget the darling theme, 
Whether the blossom blows, the summer ray 
Russets the plain, inspiring autumn gleams, 
Or winter rises in the blackening east; 

Be my tongue mute, my fancy paint no more, 
And, dead to joy, forget my heart to beat!’ 


He closes by expressing his entire confidence in the 
goodness of an ever-present Deity, and his joyful anti- 
cipations of gaining a higher and holier sphere: 


“Should fate command me to the farthest verge 
Of the green earth, to distant barbarous climes, 
Rivers unknown to song; where first the sun 
Gilds Indian mountains, or his setting beam 
Flames on the Atlantic isles; ’tis naught to me 
Since God is ever present, ever felt, 

In the void waste as in the city full; 

And where He vital breathes there must be joy. 
When even at last the solemn hour shall come, 
And wing my mystic flight to future worlds, 

T cheerful will obey: there with new powers, 
Will rising wonders sing. I can not go 
Where Universal Love smiles not around, 
Sustaining all yon orbs, and all their suns; 
From seeming evil still educing gcod, 

And better thence again, and better still, 

In infinit2 pregression. But I lose 

Myself in Hira, in light ineffable ! 

Come then, expressive Silence, muse his praise 


be 


ISAAC WATTS: CHARLES WESLEY. 


Of the great christian poets, Watts and Wesley, it is 
scarcely necessary to speak. Their productions are 
above all praise. Their inspiring hymns are the hymns 
of universal Christendom, and may be seen by the hun- 


Poets. 395d 


dred in most of our hymn books. They differ in their 
styles of composition, but in both of them the essen- 
tial truths of evangelical religion are clearly presented. 
They have been of immense advantage in promoting the 
christian cause, in many instances as effectually as the 
pulpit itself: in others, more so. 


JOHN G. WHITTIER. 


Whittier, as a poet, has long been a favorite with the 
literary public. His poems are unsurpassed for their 
advocacy of human freedom and human progress. He 
manifests great sympathy for suffering humanity, while 
a religious feeling pervades his varied productions. In 
the following beautiful poem, he presents the Bible as 
the gem of priceless worth: 


“¢Q lady fair, these silks of mine 

Are beautiful and rare, 

The richest web of the Indian loom, 
Which beauty’s queen might wear; 

And my pearls are pure as thy own fair neck, 
With whose radiant light they vie: 

I have brought them with me a weary way: 
Will my gentle lady buy ? 


“And the lady smiled on the worn old man, 
Through the dark and clustering curls 

Which veiled her brow as she bent to view 
His silks and glittering pearls; 

And she placed their price in the old man’s hand, 
And lightly turned away ; 

But she paused at the wanderer’s call,— 
‘My gentle lady, stay!’ 


396 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Buble. 


“<Q lady fair, ] have yet a gem 

Which a purer luster flings 

Than the diamond flash of the jeweled crown 
On the lofty brow of kings,— 

A wonderful pearl of exceeding price, 
Whose virtues shall not decay, 

Whose light shall be as a spell to thee, 
And a blessing on thy way.’ 


“The lady glanced at the mirroring steel 
Where her form of grace was seen, 
Where her eyes shone clear and her dark locks waved 
Their clasping pearls between. 
‘Bring forth thy pearl of exceeding worth, 
Thou traveler gray and old, 
And name the price of thy precious gem 
And my page shall count the gold.’ 


“The cloud went off from the pilgrim’s brow, 
As a small and meager book, 
Uncased with gold or gem of cost, 
From his folding robe he took ! 
‘Here, lady fair, is the pearl of price, 
May it prove as such to thee! 
Nay—keep thy gold—I ask it not, 
For the Word of God is free!’ 


“The hoary traveler went his way, 

But the gift he left behind 

Hath had its pure and perfect work 
On the high-born maiden’s mind. 

And she hath turned from the pride of sin 
To the lowliness of truth, 

And given her human heart to God 
In its beautiful hour of youth. 


“And she hath left the gray old halls, 
Where an evil faith had power, 
The courtly knights of her father’s train, 
And the maidens of her bower; 


Poets. 397 


And she hath gone to the Vaudois vales, 
By lordly feet untrod, 

Where the poor and needy of earth are rich 
In the perfect love of God!” 


EDWARD YOUNG, D.C.L. 


Young’s Night Thoughts is a profound poem on Life, 
Death, and Immortality. It will remain to the end of 
time as a grand monument of human and divine wisdom. 
In argument it is powerful; perhaps it is the greatest 
argumentative poem ever written: in illustration it is 
beautiful: and in style it is admirable. The supreme 
value of religion is thus forcibly expressed: 


“ Religion’s all. Descending from the skies 
To wretched man, the goddess in her left 
Holds out this world, and in her right the next. 
Religion! Providence! an after-state! 
Here is firm footing: here is solid rock: 
This can support us: all is sea besides, 
Sinks under us, bestorms, and then devours. 
His hand the good man fastens on the skies, 
And bids earth roll, nor feels her idle whirl.” 


The following extract shows Dr. Young’s opinion of 
the superlative excellence of the Sacred Volume: 


“ Retire, and read thy Bible, to be gay. 
There truths abound of sovereign aid to peace. 
Ah! do not prize them less, because inspired, 
As thou, and thine, are apt and proud to do. 
If not inspired, that pregnant page had stood 
Time’s treasure! and the wonder of the wise!” 


398 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES. 


The Presidents of the United States have all referred, 
more or less, to a Superintending Providence, by whom 
the infant colonies were conducted to a well-organized 
republic—a republic which, at this day, is ranked among 
the first powers of the globe. They have likewise de- 
voutly expressed their gratitude to this Providence for 
their country’s rich domain, its salubrious climate, its 
superior civilization, its admirable constitution and laws, 
and its unparalleled prosperity, and have earnestly called 
upon the whole community to unite with them in acts of 
adoration and thanksgiving. These expressions might 
be given by the hundred, but inasmuch as they are more 
or less similar, only a few are introduced. Considerable 
space is allotted to the religious utterances of Jefferson 
and Lincoln, who, with Franklin, have been charged 
with skepticism. The quotations given show that the 
charge is unjust and false To show that these men, 
occupying the highest position on earth, had a reveren- 
tial regard for the Supreme Ruler of the Republic, and 
for his revealed religion, is no small pleasure. 


GEORGE WASHINGTON. 


No name is dearer to every true American, and, in 
fact, to every true friend of Freedom through the civil- 
ized world, than the name of Washington. The great 
hero who conducted a seven years’ terrific contest with 
the most formidable power on the globe, and conducted 
it to a most glorious issue, and then became the wise 
statesman who superintended the construction of the 


Presidents of the United States. 599 


grandest political edifice the world has ever seen, is cer- 
tainly entitled to the universal homage of mankind. And 
what was the opinion of this noble man in regard to our 
holy religion? In his Farewell Address—almost his 
dying words—to his countrymen, he says: 

“Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to vanes 
cal prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable 
supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of 
patriotism, who should-labor to subvert these great pil- 
lars of human happiness, the firmest props of the duties 
of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with 
the pious man, ought to respect and cherish them. <A 
volume could not trace all their connections with private 
and public felicity. And let us, with caution, indulge 
the supposition that morality can be maintained without 
religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence 
of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, rea- 
son and experience both forbid us to expect that national 
morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.” 

After speaking of the improvements and advantages of 
the present age of the world, Washington places the light 
of revelation superior to them all. How just are.his re- 
marks: ‘The free cultivation of letters, the unbounded 
extension of commerce, the progressive refinement of 
manners, the growing liberality of sentiment, and, above 
all, the pure and benign light of revelation, have had a 
meliorating influence on mankind, and increased the 
blessings of society.” 

“While just government protects all in their rights, true 
religion gives to government its surest support.” ‘The 
general prevalence of piety, philanthropy, honesty, in- 
dustry, and economy seems, in the ordinary course of 


400 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


human affairs, particularly necessary for advancing and 
confirming the happiness of our country.” “ Religion 
and morality are essential supports to society.” 

In another part of his writings, Washington says, 
‘Religion is as necessary to reason as reason is to relig- 
ion. The one can not exist without the other. A rea- 
soning being would lose his reason, in attempting to ac- 
count for the great phenomena of nature, had he nota 
Supreme Being to refer to; and well has it been said, 
that if there had been no Pod, mankind would have been 
obliged to imagine one.’ 

He also says, “It 1s es to govern the world 
without God.” 

And again, “It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge 
the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be 
grateful for his benefits, and humbly implore his protec- 
tion and favor.” 

Washington also observes, “There never was a people 
who had more reason to acknowledge a divine interposition 
in their affairs than those of the United States; and I 
should be pained to believe that they have forgotten that 
agency which was so often manifested during the Revo- 
lution, or that they failed to consider the omnipotence of 
that God who is alone able to protect them. He must be 
worse than an infidel that lacks faith, and more than 
wicked that has not gratitude enough to acknowledge his 
obligations.” 

In a circular letter, addressed by Washington to the 
governors of the several States at the close of the war, 
he says, “ We shall have equal occasion to felicitate our- 
selves on the lot which Providence has assigned us, 
whether we view it in a natural, political, or moral point 


Presidents of the United States. 401 


of view.” ‘‘ Heaven has crowned all its other blessings 
by giving us a surer opportunity for political happiness 
than any other nation has ever been favored with.” “TI 
now make it my earnest prayer that God would have you 
and the State over which you preside in his holy protec- 
tion;” “and that he would most graciously be. 
pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, 
and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility, and 
pacific temper of mind, which were the characteristics 
of the divine Author of our blessed religion, without a 
humble imitation of whose example, in these things, we 
can never hope to be a happy nation.” 

Toward the close of Washington’s administration, and 
after he had retired from the Presidency, the atheistic 
revolution of France was having some infiuence on the 
minds of certain individuals in the United States, and 
even efforts were being made to entangle the young re- 
public with the French revolutionists in their reckless 
movements. Though Washington was always for liberty, 
he was never for licentiousness ; and he had no sympathy 
with such a suicidal policy. The sentiments that he 
uttered at this critical juncture are in unison with his 
judicious statesmanship. He said, “I can not but hope 
and believe that the good sense of the people will ulti- 
mately get the better of their prejudices. I do not be- 
lieve that Providence has done so much for nothing. 
The great Governor of the Universe has led us too long 
and too far on the read to happiness and glory to forsake 
us in the midst of it. By folly and improper conduct, 
proceeding from a variety of causes, ye may now and 
then get bewildered; but I hope and trust that there is 

34 


402 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


good sense and virtue enough left to recover the right 
path before we shall be entirely lost. The rapidity of 
national revolutions appears no less astonishing than 
their magnitude. In what they will terminate is known 
only to the great Ruler of events; and, confiding in his 
wisdom and goodness, we may safely trust the issue to 
him, without perplexing ourselves to seek for that which 
is beyond human ken, only taking care to perform the 
part assigned to us in a way that reason and our own 
consciences approve.” 

As a christian ruler, Washington used his influence 
with the army to check the “ foolish and profane practice 
of cursing and swearing,’ describing it as “a vice so mean 
and low, without any temptation, that every man of 
sense and character detests and despises it.” 

He was no less hostile to gambling, remarking, “‘ This 
is a vice productive of every possible evil, equally in- 
jurious to the morals and health of its votaries. Itis the 
child of avarice, the brother of iniquity, and father of 
mischief. It has been the ruin of many worthy families, 
the loss of many a man’s honor, and the cause of suicide.” 


JOHN ADAMS. 
John Adams, one of the prime actors in the cause of 


American Independence, of whom Jefferson said that “a. 


man more perfectly honest never came from the hands 
of the Creator,”’ and whose patriotism and statesmanship 
were of the highest order, ever spoke of religion and the 
Bible with the profoundest respect. On one occasion he 
said : 

“The Christian religion, as I understand it, is the 
brightness of the glory and the express portrait of the 


— 


Presidents of the United States. 403 


character of the eternal, self-existent, independent, benevo- 
lent, all-powerful, and all-merciful Creator, Preserver, 
and Father of the universe, the first good, the first per- 
fect, and the first fair. It will last as long as the world. 
Neither savage nor civilized man, without a revelation, 
could have discovered or invented it.” 

‘Religion and virtue are the only foundations, not 

only of republicanism and of all free governments, but 
of social felicity under all governments, and in all the 
- combinations of human society. Science, liberty, and 
religion are the choicest blessings of humanity ; without 
their joint influence, no society can be great, flourishing, 
or happy.” 

Speaking of the Inspired Volume, this great statesman 
said, ‘‘The Bible is the best book in the world.” 

Mr. Adams regarded the discovery and colonization 
of America as the unfolding of one of the grand designs 
of the Almighty. He remarks: “I always consider the 
settlement of America with reverence and wonder, as the 
opening of a grand scheme and design of Providence for 
the illumination of the ignorant and the emancipation of 
the slavish part of mankind all over the earth.” 

Mr. Adams was the first minister to England after the 
establishment of peace. He was presented to the court 
on the 9th of June, 1785, and made the following address 
to the Queen: ‘ Permit me, madam, to recommend to 
your Majesty’s royal goodness, a rising empire and an 
infant virgin world. Another Europe, madam, is rising 
in America. Toa philosophical mindlike your Majesty’s, 
there can not be a more pleasing comtemplation than the 
prospect of doubling the human species, and augmenting 
at the same time their prosperity and happiness. It will 


404 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


in future ages be the glory of these kingdoms to have 
planted that country, and to have sown there those seeds 
of science, of liberty, of virtue, and, permit me, madam, 
to add, of piety, which alone constitute the prosperity of 
nations, and the happiness of the human race.” 

With the French Revolution, Mr. Adams had no sym- 
pathy. He utterly despised the atheistic principles of 
those by whom it was originated. In a letter to Dr. 


Price, he says: “I know that encyclopedists and econ- 


omists, Diderot and D’Alembert, Volteire and Rousseau, 
have contributed to this event more than Sidney, Locke, 
or Hoadly,—perhaps more than the American Revolu- 
tion; and I own to stout I know not what to make of 
thirty million atheists.” 

Mr. Adams thus expressed himself on the beneficial 
results that would flow from the universal adoption of 
the Bible, and the faithful observance of its divine teach- 
ings: ‘Suppose a nation in some distant region should 
take the Bible for their only law-book, and every mem- 
ber should regulate his conduct by the precepts there 
exhibited. Every member would be obliged, in con- 
science, to temperance and frugality and industry; to 
justice and kindness and charity toward his fellow men; 
and to piety, love, and reverence toward Almighty God. 
In this commonwealth no man would impair his health by 
gluttony, drunkenness, or lust; no man would sacrifice 
his most precious time at cards, or any other trifling and 
mean amusement; no man would steal or lie, or in any 
way defraud his neighbor, but would live in peace and 
good-will with all men; no man would blaspheme his 
Maker, or profane his worship.” When sixty years of 
age, he remarked: ‘ The Christian religion is, above all 


Presidents of the United States. 405 


the religions that ever prevailed or existed in ancient or 
modern times, the religion of wisdom, virtue, equity, and 


humanity.” 
ABIGAIL ADAMS. 


Mrs. Adams, wife of John Adams, President of the 
United States, and also mother of John Quincy Adams, 
who likewise was President of the United States, in a 
letter to her son, gives the following valuable counsels: 

‘The only sure and permanent foundation of virtue is 
religion. Let this important truth be engaven on your 
heart; and also that the foundation of religion is the 
belief of only one God, as a Being infinitely wise, just, 
and good, to whom you owe the highest reverence, grati- 
tude, and adoration. Placed as we are in this transitory 
scene of probation, drawing nigher and still nigher, day 
after day, to that important crisis which must introduce 
us tu a new system of things, it ought to be our principal 
concern to become qualified for our expected dignity. 
Great learning and superior abilities, should we even 
possess them, will be of little value and small estimation, 
unless virtue, honor, truth, and integrity are added to 
them. Adhere, then, to those religious sentiments which 
were early instilled into your mind, and remember that 
you are accountable to your Maker for all your words 
and actions. Dear as you are to me, I would much 
rather you should have found your grave in the ocean you 
have crossed, or that death should have taken you in 
your infant years, than to see you an immoral profli- 
gate, or graceless child.” 


THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
Thomas Jefferson, one of the most determined foes to 


406 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


despotism that the world ever saw, and to whom the United 
States are largely indebted for their liberties, devoutly 
acknowledged his dependence on a Superior Power, when 
entering on his duties as a statesman. He said: 

“‘T shall need the favor of that Being in whose hands 
we are, who led our fathers, as Israel of old, from their 
native land, and planted them in a country flowing with 
all the necessaries and comforts of life, who has covered 
our infancy with his providence, and our riper years with 
his wisdom and power, and to whose goodness I ask you to 
join with me in supplications that he will so enlighten the 
minds of your servants, guide their counsels, and prosper 
their measures, that whatsoever they do shall result in 
your good, and shall secure to you the friendship of all 
nations.” 

Jefferson, as all know, was the author of the Declara- 
tion of Independence. In that great instrument, he 
speaks of “the laws of nature and nature’s God;” also 
of men being “endowed by their Creator with certain in- 
alienable rights ;” likewise of appealing to “the Supreme 
Judge of the world for the rectitude of their intentions ;” 
and finally of “a firm reliance on the protection of 
Divine Providence.” 

In the Continental Congress, he proposed for a na- 
tional seal a device representing the children of Israel 
going through the wilderness guided by the pillar of 
fire and cloud. 

Jefferson’s first inaugural has the following true senti- 
ments. ‘ Enlightened by a benign religion, professed 
indeed and practiced in various forms, yet all of them 
including honesty, truth, temperance, gratitude, and the 
love of man, acknowledging and adoring an overruling 


Oi ee Bi es, te 


Presidents of the United States. 407 


Providence, which by all its dispensations proves that it 
delights in the happiness of men here and hereafter.” 

In the year 1804, his daughter Maria, whom he ten- 
derly loved, departed life, leaving a babe behind her. 
His eldest daughter, Martha, speaking of the father’s 
grief, says, “I found him with the Bible in his hands. - 
He, who has been so often and so harshly accused of unbe- 
lief—he, in his hour of intense affliction, sought and 
found consolation in the Sacred Volume.” 

In response to a letter of condolence from a friend, 
Mr. Jefferson makes the remark: “ Whatever is to be our 
destiny, wisdom as well as duty dictates that we should 
acquiesce in the will of Him whose it is to give and take 
away.” 

While his daughter, Martha, was attending school at 
Annapolis, she became very much disturbed in her mind 
by some predictions respecting the speedy end of the 
world. To quiet her feelings he wrote to her, “As to 
preparations for that event, the best way for you is to be 
always prepared for it. The way to be so 1s never to do 
or say a bad thing. If ever you are about to say any 
thing amiss, or to do any thing wrong, consider before- 
hand. You will feel something within you which will 
tell you it is wrong, and ought not to be said or done. 
This is your conscience, and be sure to obey. Our 
Maker has given us all this faithful internal monitor ; 
and,if you always obey it, you will always be prepared 
for the end of the world, or for a much more certain 
event—which is death.” 

In a letter to Mr. Adams, dated January, 1817, is the 
remark, “ Perhaps one of the elements of future felicity 


408 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


is to be a constant and unimpassioned view of what is 
passing here.” 

In another letter written after the death of Mrs. 
Adams, he remarks, “It is some comfort to us both that 
the term is not very distant at which we are to deposit 
in the same cerement our sorrows and suffering bodies, 
and to ascend in essence to an ecstatic meeting with the 
friends we have loved and lost, and whom we shall still 
love, and never lose again. God bless you, and support 
you under your heavy affliction ! ” 

In another letter written after he had passed his three- 
score years and ten, he replies to Mr. Adams, “ You ask 
if I would live my seventy, or rather seventy-three, years 


over again. ‘To which I say, Yes, I think, with you, that | 


it is a good world, on the whole: that it has been framed 
on a principle of benevolence ; and that more pleasure 
than pain is dealt out to us.” 

In a letter to Dr. Vine Utley, dated March 21, 1819, 
he writes, “I never go to bed without an hour or half 


hour’s previous reading of something moral whereon to 


ruminate in the intervals of sleep.” 

His biographers, Abbott and Conwell, remark, “ The 
book from which he oftenest read was a collection which 
he had made by cutting such passages from the evange- 
lists as came directly from the lips of the Savior. These 
he arranged in a blank book. He wrote to a friend, ‘A 
more beautiful or precious morsel of ethics I have never 
seen: it is a document in proof that I am a real 
Christian ; that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of 
Jesus.’ This book Mr. Jefferson prepared evidently with 
great care. It is a very full compend of the teachings 
of our Savior. It was entitled ‘The Philosophy of Jesus 


Presidents of the United States. 409 


of Nazareth.’ He also prepared a second volume, which 
he had bound in morocco, in a handsome octavo volume, 
and which he labeled on the back, ‘ Morals of Jesus.’ ” 

Mis biographer; Henry 8. Randall, says that the Bible 
was one of the principal books, which, with the Greek 
philosophers, occupied his last reading. The majesty of 
4Hischylus, the ripe art of Sophocles, the exhaustless in- 
vention of Euripides, now came back to him in more 
than their pristine grandeur and beauty; and in the 
Bible he found flights of sublimity more magnificent than 
in these, coupled with a philosophy to which the Grecian 
was imperfect, narrow, and base. No sentiment did he 
express oftener than his contempt for all moral systems 
compared with that of Christ.” | 

By his grandson, Thomas Jefferson Randolph, who was 
the companion of his life, and who was thirty-four years 
of age when Mr. Jefferson died, a sketch of his character 
was given; of which the following is an abstract contained 
in Abbot and Conwell’s Biography : 

‘““My mother was his eldest, and, for the last twenty 
years of his life, his only child. She lived with him from 
her birth to his death. I was more intimate with him 
than with any man I have ever known. His charac- 
ter invited such intimacy. Soft and feminine in his 
affections to his family, he entered into and sympathized 
with all their feelings, winning them to paths of virtue 
by the soothing gentleness of his manner. While he 
lived, and since, I have reviewed with severe scrutiny 
those interviews; and I must say that I never heard 
from him the expression of one thought, feeling, or senti- 
ment, inconsistent with the highest moral standard, or 
the purest Christian charity in the largest sense. Hig 


410 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


moral character was of the highest order, founded upon 
the purest and sternest models of antiquity, softened, 
chastened, and developed by the influence of the all- 
pervading benevolence of the doctrines of Christ, which 
he had intensely and admiringly studied. In his contem- 
plative moments, his mind turned to religion, which he 
studied thoroughly. He had seen and read much of the 
abuses and perversions of Christianity: he abhorred 
those abuses and their authors, and denounced them with- 
out reserve. He was regular in his attendance on church, 
taking his prayer-book with him. He drew the plan of 
the Episcopal Church at Charlottesville, was one of the 
largest contributors to its erection, and contributed 
regularly to the support of its minister. I paid, after 
his death, his subscription of two hundred dollars to the 
erection of the Presbyterian church in the same village. 
A gentleman of some distinction calling upon him, and 
expressing his disbelief in the truths of the Bible, his 
reply was, ‘Then, sir, you have studied it to little pur- 
pose. He was guilty of no profanity himself, and did 
not tolerate it in others. He detested impiety; and his 
favorite quotation for his young friends, as the basis of 
their morals, was the fifteenth Psalm of David. He did 
not permit cards in his house: he knew no game with 
them. His family, by whom he was surrounded, and who 
saw him in all the unguarded privacy of private life, be- 
lieved him to be the purest of men. The beauty of his 
character was exhibited in the bosom of his family, where 
he delighted to indulge in all the fervor and delicacy of 
feminine feeling.” ‘ His habits were regular and sys- 
tematic. He rose always at dawn. He said, in his last 
illness, that the sun had not caught him in bed for fifty 


ee 


Presidents of the United States. 411 


years. He never drank ardent spirits or strong wines. 
Such was his aversion to ardent spirits, that when, in his 
last illness, his physician wished him to use brandy as an 
astringent, he could not induce him to take it strong 
enough.” 

After an extended experience and observation in official 
life, Jefferson, a short time before his death, said, “ The 
habit of using ardent spirits by men in public office, has 
occasioned more injury to the public service, and more 
trouble to me, than any other circumstance which has 
occurred in the internal concerns of the country during 
my administration. And were I to commence my ad- 
ministration again, with the knowledge which, from ex- 
perience, I have acquired, the first question which I 
would ask, with regard to every candidate for public 
office, should be, ‘Is he addicted to the use of ardent 
spirits?’ ” } 

In his Notes on Virginia, after speaking of the evils 
“of slavery, Jefferson refers in reverential terms to the 
justice of the Almighty in dealing with nations and com- 
munities. He asks, “Can the liberties of a nation be 
thought secure, when we have removed their only firm 
basis—a conviction in the minds of the people that these 
liberties are of the gift of God? that they are not to be 
violated but with his wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my 
country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice 
can not sleep forever ; that considering numbers, nature, 
and natural means only, a revolution of the wheel of 
fortune, an exchange of situation is among possible 
events; that it may become probable by supernatural 
interference! The Almighty has no attribute which can 
take side with us in such a contest.” 


412 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


Jefferson alsoremarks: “We must wait with patience 
the workings of an overruling Providence, and hope that 
that is preparing the deliverance of these our brethren. 
When the measure of their tears shall be full, when their 
groans shall have involyed Heaven itself in darkness, 
doubtless a God of justice will awaken to their distress. 
Nothing is more certainly written in the Book of Fate, 
than that this people shall be free.” 

The closing years of Jefferson’s life were largely oc- 
cupied with the establishment of the University of Vir- 
ginia. His desire was to make the institution equal to 
the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge in England, 
and thus afford an opportunity to the youth of America 
to acquire a thorough systematic education. He did not 
connect religion directly with the institution, but rather 
favored the idea of different denominations of Christians 
establishing theological seminaries around it. The Rev. 
Mr. Tucker of Virginia, in the Presbyterian Synod 
which met in 1859, said that “The establishment of a 
theological seminary near the University of Virginia was 
carrying out the original idea of Mr. Jefferson. He had 
seen in Mr. Jefferson’s own handwriting, the pains- 
taking style of the olden time, a sketch of his plan. The 
University of Virginia was the crowning glory of that 
great man’s life, and he felt it his duty to vindicate his 
memory, as he had it in his power to do, from any inten- 
tion to exclude religious influences from the institution. 
He had invited all denominations to establish theological 
schools around the University, so that all might have the 
literary advantages of the institution, without making it 
subservient to one denomination.” 

In a letter dated June 15, 1852, and written at 


Presidents of the United States. 413 


Marshfield, Mr. Webster, the statesman, gives an account 
of an interview which he had with Jefferson toward 
the close of his life. He says: 

‘““Many years ago, I spent a Sabbath with Thomas Jef- 
ferson, at his residence in Virginia. It was in the month 
of June, and the weather was delightful. While engaged 
in discussing the beauties of the Bible, the sound of a 
bell broke upon our ears, when, turning to the Sage of 
Monticello, I remarked, ‘How sweetly, how very sweetly 
sounds that Sabbath bell!’ The distinguished statesman 
for a moment seemed lost in thought, and then replied, 
‘Yes, my dear Webster, yes: it melts the heart, it calms 
our passions, and makes us boys again.’ Here I ob- 
served that man was only an animal formed for religious 
worship; and that notwithstanding all the sophistry of 
Kpicurus, Lucretius and Voltaire, the Scriptures stood 
upon a rock as firm, as unmovable as truth itself; that 
man in his purer, loftier breathings, turned the mental 
eyes toward immortality ; and that the poet only echoed 
the general sentiment of our nature in saying, 


‘The soul, secure in her existence, smiles 
At the drawn dagger, and defies its point.’ 


Mr. Jefferson fully concurred in this opinion, and ob- 
served that the tendency of the American mind was in a 
different direction, and that the Sunday-school (he did 
not use our more correct word, Sabbath) presented the 
only legitimate means, under the Constitution, of avoid- 
ing the rock on which the French Republic was wrecked. 
‘Burke,’ said he, ‘never uttered a more important truth 
than when he exclaimed, that a religious education is the 
cheap defense of nations. Raikes has done more for our 


414 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


country than the present generation will acknowledge. 
Perhaps, when I am cold in death, he will obtain his 
reward. I earnestly hope so. Iam considered by many, 
Mr. Webster, to have little religion; but now is not the 
time to correct errors of this sort. I have always said, 
and elways will say, that the studious perusal of the 
Sacred Volume will make better citizens, better husbands, 
and better fathers. Of the distinguished Raikes, he was 
clarum et venerabile nomen.’ [The illustrious and vener- 
able name.| I took the liberty of saying that I found 
more pleasure in Hebrew poetry than in the best pro- 
ductions of Greece and Rome; that the ‘harp upon the 
willows by Babylon’ had charms for me beyond any 
thing in the numbers of the blind man of Smyrna. I 
then turned to Jeremiah, (there was a fine folio of the 
Scriptures before me of 1458,) and read aloud some of 
those sublime passages that used to delight me on my 
father’s knee.” 
JAMES MADISON. 

James Madison, the philosophic statesman of the early 
days of the Republic, and who is styled, the Father of 
the Constitution, that most admirable book of political wis- 
dom, in which the different powers of the government are 
so finely balanced, repeatedly acknowledged the agency 
of a superintending Providence in all national affairs. 

In 1812, he made the remark, “We are under sacred 
obligation to transmit entire to future generations that 
precious patrimony of national rights and independence, 
which is held in trust by the present from the goodness 
of Providence.” “We may humbly repose our trust in 
the smiles of Heaven on so righteous a cause.” 

In closing his last message, Madison remarks, “‘ May 


Se 


Presidents of the United States. 415 


T not be allowed to add to this gratifying spectacle [of 
our prosperity] that the destined career of my country 
will exhibit a government pursuing the public good as its 
sole object, and regulating its means by those great prin- 
ciples consecrated in its charter, and by those moral 
principles to which they are so well allied—a govern- 
ment, in a word, whose conduct within and without may 
bespeak the most noble of all ambitions, that of promot- 
ing ‘ peace on earth, and good will to men.’’ 


JAMES MONROE. ; 

James Monroe, whose statesmanship was distinguished 
for peace and justice, and who announced the wise 
doctrine of non-interference with the republics of the 
new world by the nations of the old, gave utterance to 
the following sentiment in one of his messages: 

“When we view the great blessings with which our 
country has been favored, those which we now enjoy, 
and the means which we possess of handing them down 
unimpaired to our latest posterity, our attention is irre- 
sistibly drawn to the Source from which they flow. Let 
us, then, unite in offering our most grateful acknowledg- 
ment for these blessings to the Divine Author of all 


good.” 
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 


One of the most illustrious presidents of the United 
States was John Quincy Adams. He had a vigorous in- 
tellect and a sound judgment: his mind, too, was largely 
stored with general literature: moreover, he was a supe- 
rior public speaker, being logical in his arguments, clear 
in his illustrations, and impressive in his delivery. His 
speeches in Congress were almost unrivaled, and his lit- 


416 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


erary and scientific addresses were of the highest order. 
Besides, his independence of character and his political 
integrity were worthy the true American citizen. When 
the right of petition was assailed in Congress, he stood 
up nobly in its defense, and preserved this glorious right 
to the American people. And where did he get these 
noble traits of character? We answer unhesitatingly 
from the Bible. 

In his Inaugural Address, speaking of the Ruler of 
nations, he said, ‘‘ With fervent supplications for his favor, 
to his overruling Providence I commit, with humble but 
fearless confidence, my own fate and the future destinies 
of my country.” 

When at the Court of St. Petersburg, he wrote a series 
of letters to his eldest son, then ten years old, on the 
study of the Bible, in which he says, “So great is my 
veneration for the Bible, and so strong my belief, that, 
when duly read and meditated upon, it is of all books in 
the world that which contributes to make men good, wise, 
and happy, that the earlier my children begin to read it, 
and the more steadily they pursue the practice of read- 
ing it throughout their lives, the more lively and confi- 
dent will be my hopes that they will prove useful citizens 
to their country, respectable members of society, and a 
real blessing to their parents.” “I have, myself, for 
many years made it a practice to read through the 
Bible once every year. My custom is to read four or 
five chapters every morning, immediately after rising 
from bed. It employs about an hour of my time, and 
seems to me the most suitable manner of beginning the 
day.” 

“You know the difference between right and wrong. 


Oe 


Presidents of the United States. AIT 


You know some of your duties, and the obligation you 
are under of becoming acquainted with them all. It is 
in the Bible you must learn them, and from the Bible 
learn how to practice them. Those duties are—to God, 
to.your fellow-creatures, to yourself. ‘Thou shalt love 
the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy 
soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength, 
and thy neighbor as thyself.’ On these two command- 
ments, Jesus Christ expressly says, ‘hang all the law 
and the prophets.’ That is to say that the whole purpose 
of divine revelation is to inculcate them efficaciously upon 
the minds of men.” 

‘Let us, then, search the Scriptures. The Bible con- 
tains the revelation of the will of God: it contains the 
history of the creation of the world and of mankind. It 
contains a system of religion and morality which we may 
examine upon its own merits, independent of the sanction 
it receives from being the word of God. In what light 
so ever we regard it, whether with reference to revela- 
tion, to history, to morality, or to literature, it is an in- 
exhaustible mine of knowledge and virtue. 

‘The first words of the Bible are, ‘In the beginning 
God created the heavens and the earth.’ This blessed 
and sublime idea of God, the Creator of the universe,— 
this-source of all human virtue and all human happiness, 
for which all the sages and philosophers of Greece and 
Rome groped in darkness and never found,—is revealed 
in the first verse of the book of Genesis. I call this the 
source of all human virtue and happiness. 

“‘ Here, then, is the foundation of all morality,—the 
source of all our obligations as accountable creatures. 
This idea of the transcendent power of the Supreme 


418 = Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


Being is essentially connected with that by which the 
whole duty of man is summed up in obedience to his will. 

‘“‘The moral character of the Old Testament, then, is 
that piety to God is the foundation of all virtue, and that 
virtue is inseparable from it, but that piety without the 
practice of virtue is itself a crime, and an aggravation 
of all iniquity. All the virtues which were recognized 
by the heathens are inculcated, not only with more au- 
thority, but with more energy of argument and more elo- 
quent persuasion, in the Bible, than in all: the writings 
of the ancient moralists. 

“The sum of Christian morality, then, consists in piety 
to God, and benevolence to man,—piety manifested not 
by formal solemnities and sacrifices of burnt-offerings, 
but by repentance, by obedience, by submission, by 
humility, by the worship of the heart; and benevolence 
not founded upon selfish motives, but Superior even to 
the sense of wrong or the resentment of injuries, 

‘““The whole system of Christian morality appears to 
have been set forth by its divine Author in the Sermon 
on the Mount. What I would impress upon your mind 
as infinitely important to the happiness and virtue of 
your life is the general spirit of Christianity, and the 
duties which result from it.” 

Mr. Adams next enters into a more minute detail 
of the christian virtues and graces, making the prefatory 
remark: “The combination of these qualities, justice 
and fidelity, so essential to the heroic character, with 
those of meekness, lowliness of heart, and brotherly love, 
is what constitutes that moral perfection of which Christ 
gave an example in his own life, and to which he com- 
mended his disciples to aspire. 


Presidents of the United States. 419 


“By admitting the Bible as a divine revelation, we 
have hopes of future felicity inspired, together with a 
conviction of our present wretchedness. The blood of 
the Redeemer has washed out the pollution of our origi- 
nal sin, and the certainty of eternal happiness in a future 
life is again secured to us in the primitive condition of 
obedience to the will of God. 

‘‘ Jesus Christ came into the world to preach repentance 
and remission of sins, to proclaim glory to God in the 
highest, and on earth, peace, good will to man, and, 
finally, to bring life and immortality to light in the gos- 
pel; and all this is clear, if we consider the Bible as a 
divine revelation. | 

“Of the ten commandments, emphatically so called for 
the extraordinary and miraculous distinction with which 
they were promulgated, the first four are religious laws. 
The fifth and tenth are properly and peculiarly moral, 
and the other four are of the criminal department of 
municipal law. Vain indeed would be the search among 
all the writings of profane antiquity—not merely of that 
remote antiquity, but even in the most refined and most 
philosophic ages of Greece and Rome—to find so broad, 
so complete, so solid a basis for morality as this deca- 
logue lays down.” 

Toward the close of his life, Mr. Adams was called 
to preside at the annniversary of the Bible Society of 
Washington. He commenced his address with the remark, 
‘Tn taking the chair as the oldest Vice-President of the 
Society, I deem myself fortunate in having the oppor- 
tunity, at this stage of a long life drawing rapidly to its 
close, to bear at this place, the capital of our National 


420 Testimonies in Favor of Reliyion and the Bible. 


Union, my solemn testimonial of reverence and gratitude 
to that Book of books, the Holy Bible.” 


ANDREW JACKSON. 


General Jackson, whose valor and patriotism were of 
a high order, always spoke of the Bible and the Chris- 
tian religion with great respect, and in his messages 
expressed his full faith in a superintending Providence. 

In his Message of 1836, after the political troubles 
that threatened the peace of the Union had subsided, he 
thus invoked the Divine blessing: “ May the Great 
Ruler of nations grant that the signal blessings with 
which he has favored us may not, by the madness of 
party or personal ambition, be lost; and may his wise 
providence bring those who have produced this crisis to 
see their folly before they feel the misery of civil strife, 
and inspire a returning veneration for the Union, which, 
if we may dare to penetrate his designs, he has chosen as 
the only means of attaining the high destinies to which 
we may reasonably aspire.” 

The General’s wife died on the 23d of December, 
1828, immediately after his election to the Presidency 
of the United States: After her mortal remains had been 
deposited in the grave, he was followed to his home by a 
number of sympathizing friends and neighbors. Paus- 
ing for a few moments, he looked around him, and, raising 
his voice, said, “I thank you for the honor you have done 
to the sainted one whose remains now repose in yonder 
grave. She is now in the bliss of heaven, and I know 
that she can suffer no more on earth. That is enough for 
my consolation: my loss is her gain. If it had been 
God’s will, I would have been grateful for the privilege 


4 a bi bt Te ee — 


oy ee ARO 


hut, 


Presidents of the United States. 421 


of taking her to my post of honor, and seating her by 
my side; but Providence knew what was best for her. 
For myself I bow to God’s will, and go alone to the place 
of new and arduous duties.” 

After the General’s retirement from public life, he 
made a profession of religion, and united with the Pres- 
byterian church. It is said that he twice read through 
the family Bible, and daily conducted family prayers. 

During his last illness, he pointed to the family Bible 
that lay on the stand, and remarked to a friend, “ That 
Book, sir, is the rock on which our Republic rests.” 

Before he died, he expressed a wish to be buried beside 
his wife that he loved so well, there to remain, as he 
said, “ Until the last trumpet sounds to call the dead to 
judgment, when we, I hope, shall rise together, clothed 
with that heavenly body promised to all who believe in 
our glorious Redeemer, who died for us that we might 
live, and by whose atonement I hope for a blessed immor- 
tality.” 

MARTIN VAN BUREN. 

Martin Van Buren, on assuming his duties as Presi- 
dent of the United States, said: “I only look to the 
gracious protection of that Divine Being whose strength- 
ening support I humbly solicit, and whom I fervently 
pray to look down upon us all. May it be among the 
dispensations of his Providence to bless our beloved 
country with honors and length of days: may her ways 
be ways of pleasantness, and all her paths peace.” 

Similar sentiments were expressed in all his messages. 
He became a member of the Dutch Reformed Church, 
and in his dying moments gave full evidence of the sin- 
cerity of his profession, making the remark: “The 


422 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


atonement of Christ is the only remedy and rest for 
the soul.” 
WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. , 

General Harrison, who took so active and efficient a 
part in the early settlement of the West, and who filled 
so creditably several important public offices, wrote to 
his wife, on assuming the office of President of the 
United States: “I retired into the presence of my 
Maker, and implored his gracious guidance in the dis- 
charge of the duties of my high station.” 

In his Inaugural Address, he utters the following noble 
sentiment: “I deem the present occasion sufficiently im- 
portant and solemn to justify me in expressing to my fel- 
low-citizens a profound reverence for the Christian relig- 
ion, and a thorough conviction that sound morals, religious 
liberty, and a just sense of religious responsibility, are 
essentially connected with all true and lasting happiness. 
And to that Good Being who has blest us with the gifts 
of civil and religious freedom, who watched over and 
prospered the labors of our fathers, and has hitherto 
preserved to us institutions far exceeding in excellence 
those of any other people, let us unite in fervently com- 
mending every interest of our beloved country in all 
future time.” 

A circumstance is related of him that is worthy the 
serious consideration of every one interested in the wel- 
fare of the rising generation. His gardener advised him 
to keep a dog to protect his fruit. The significant reply 
he made was: “Rather set a Sunday-school teacher to 
take care of the boys.” | 

For several years he was a teacher in a Sabbath-school 
near his residence on the banks of the Ohio; and on the 


a 


a 
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A 
# 
3 
‘ 


Presidents of the United States. 423 


Sabbath before he left his home for Washington city, to 
enter on his high office, he met his Bible class as usual. 

On one occasion he remarked to the pastor of the Pres- 
byterian church near his home: “TI think I enjoy re- 
ligion; I delight in the duties of a child of God; and I 
have concluded to unite with the church of God as soon 
as my health will permit me to go out.” After he had 
entered upon his duties as President, he fully resolved to 
carry out this purpose by uniting with the Episcopal 
Church on Easter Sunday, but was prevented by his sud- 
den death. 

In a great revival of religion in the Methodist Episvo- 
pal Church in Cincinnati, just before his election, he 
remarked to the pastor: “I know there are some who 
will be ready to impugn my motives in attending this 
revival-meeting at this particular time; but I regard not 
the smiles or the frowns of the public. God knows my 
heart, and understands my motives. A deep and an abid- 
ing sense of my inward spiritual necessities brings me to 
this hallowed place night after night.” 


JOHN TYLER. 


President Tyler, in his Message to Congress in 1843, 
says: “ Ifany people ever had cause to render thanks te the 
Supreme Being for parental care and protection extended 
to them in all trials and difficulties to which they have 
been from time to time exposed, we certainly are that 
people. From the first settlement of our forefathers on 
this continent,—through the dangers attendant upon the 
occupation of a savage wilderness,—through a long period 
of colonial dependence,—through the War of the Revo- 
lution,—in the wisdom which led to the adoption of the 


424 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the bible. 


existing form of republican government,—in the hazards 
incident to a war subsequently waged with one of the 
most powerful nations of the earth, —in the increase of 
our population,—in the spread of the arts and sciences, — 
and in the strength and durability conferred on our po- 
litical institutions, emanating from the people and sus- 
tained by their will,—the superintendence of an over- 
ruling. Providence has been plainly visible. As prepara- 
tory, therefore, to entering once more upon the high 
duties of legislation, it becomes us humbly to acknowledge 
our dependence upon him as our guide and protector, and 
to implore a continuance of his parental watchfulness 
over our beloved country.” 


JAMES K. POLK. 

James K. Polk, in his Message of 1847, observes : 
“No country has been so much favored by, or should 
acknowledge with deeper reverence, the manifestations 
of the Divine protection. An all-wise Creator directed 
and guarded us in our infant struggle for freedom, and 
has constantly watched over our surprising progress, until 
we have become one of the great nations of the earth.” 


Mr. Polk, while in public life, was deeply impressed — 


with the necessity of a personal interest in the Savior, 
which only increased when he retired from its arduous 
duties. Before his death, which soon afterward occurred, 
he said that ‘“‘when in office he had several times seri- 
ously intended to be baptized; but the cares and per- 
plexities of public life scarcely allowed time for the 
requisite solemn preparation; and so procrastination 
ripened into inaction.” 

About a week before his departure, he sent for the 


Presidents of the United States. 425 


Rey. Dr. Edgar, of Nashville, and with great solemnity, 
said to him, ‘““If I had supposed, twenty years ago, that 
I should come to my death-bed unprepared, it would 
have made me an unhappy man; and yet I am about to 
die, and have not made the requisite preparation. Ihave 
not even been baptized. ‘Tell me, sir, can there be any 
ground for a man thus situated to hope?” During his 
sickness, he frequently referred to the Sacred Scriptures, 
showing that he had an extensive knowledge of them, 
which he said, “he had read a great deal, and deeply 
reverenced as Divine Truth.” A week before his death 
he was baptized, and received the sacrament of the Lord’s 
Supper. 
ZACHARY TAYLOR. 

General Taylor, whose valor and skill are known to 
all, was called to the presidential chair by the earnest 
voice of the great body of the people. 

In his Inaugural Address, he said: “Let us invoke a 
continuance of the same protecting care which has led us 
from small beginnings to the eminence we this day 
occupy; and let us seek to deserve that continuance by 
prudence and moderation in our councils, by well- directed 
attempts to assuage the bitterness which too often marks 
unavoidable differences of opinion, by the promulgation 
and practice of just and liberal principles, and by an 
enlarged patriotism, which shall acknowledge no limits 
but those of our own wide-spread republic.” 

On the Fourth of July, 1849, President Taylor was 
present at a Sabbath School celebration held in the city 
of Washington. He made an address, in which he uttered 
the following truthful declaration: ‘The only ground 

36 


426 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


of hope for the continuance of our free institutions is in 
the proper moral and religious training of the children, 
that they may be prepared to discharge aright the duties 
of men and citizens.” 


MILLARD FILLMORE. 


Millard Fillmore, who, as Vice-President, became 
President at the death of General Taylor, says, in his 
Message of 1851: ‘None can look back on the dangers 
which are passed, or forward to the bright prospect be- 
fore us, without feeling a thrill of gratification. At the 
same time he must be inspired with a grateful sense of 
our profound obligation to a beneficent Providence, whose 
paternal care is so manifest in the happiness of this 
highly-favored land.” 

President Fillmore gives the following testimony to 
the importance of the fourth commandment: ‘The 
Sabbath I always kept as a day of rest. Besides being 
a religious duty, I found it was essential to health. On 
commencing my Presidential career, | ordered my door- 
keeper to meet all Sunday visitors with an indiscriminate 
refusual.”’ 

FRANKLIN PIERCE. 

Franklin Pierce, in his Inaugural, in 1853, says, 
“Standing, as I do, almost within view of the green 
slopes of Monticello, and, as it were, within reach of the 
tomb of Washington, with all the cherished memories of 
the past gathering round me, like so many eloquent 
voices from heaven, I can express no better hope for my 
country than that the kind Providence which smiled 
upon our fathers may enable their children to preserve 
the blessings they have in=erited.” 


Presidents of the United States. 427 


“‘ Recognizing the wisdom of the broad principles of 
absolute religious toleration proclaimed in our funda- 
mental law, and rejoicing in the benign influence which it 
has exerted upon our social and political condition, L 
should shrink from a clear duty did I fail to express my 
deepest conviction that we can place no secure reliance 
upon any apparent progress if it be not sustained by na- 
tional integrity, resting upon the great truths affirmed 
and illustrated by Divine revelation.” 


JAMES BUCHANAN. 

James Buchanan, in his Inaugural, in 1857, says, “ In 
entering upon this great office, 1 must humbly invoke the 
God of our fathers for wisdom and firmness to execute 
its high and responsible duties in such a manner as to re- 
store harmony and ancient friendship among the several 
States, and to preserve our free institutions throughout 
many generations.” 

In his message on Central American affairs, of Janu- 
ary, 1858, he remarked, “The avowed principle which 
lies at the foundation of the law of nations is the Divine 
command that ‘all things whatsoever ye would that men 
should do to you, do ye even so unto them.’ Tried by 
this unerring rule, we should be severely condemned if 
we shall not use our best exertions to arrest such expe- 
ditions against our feeble sister republic of Nicaragua.” 


ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 


President Lincoln, whose devotion to the interests of 
the American Union will be gratefully remembered in all 
coming time, ever looked to the Supreme Ruler of na- 
tions for guidance and support in the great and mo- 


428 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bidle. 


mentous undertaking before him. On leaving his home 
to assume his responsible duties at the nation’s capital, 
he delivered an address to his assembled friends, in which 
he said, “ I now leave, not knowing when or whether ever 
sf may return, with a task before me greater than that 
which rested upon Washington. Without the assistance 
of that Divine Being who ever attended him, I can not 
succeed. With that assistance, I can not fail. Trusting 
in Him, who can go with me, and remain with you, and 
be every-where for good, let us confidently hope that all 
will yet be well. To His care commending you, as I hope 
in your prayers you will commend me, I bid you an af- 
fectionate farewell.” 

Addressing the Ohio legislature at Columbus, and also 
the New Jersey Senate, when on his way to Washington 
city, Lincoln made similar remarks. 

In his Inaugural address, he made the significant re- 
mark, “Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm 
reliance on Him who has never yet forsaken this favored 
land, are still competent to adjust, in the best way, all our 
present difficulty.” 3 

It has been said that Lincoln, in his younger days, was 
tinctured with skepticism. If this was so, it is certain 
that when the sober thoughts of mature manhood took 
possession of his mind, he was of a different opinion. 
Abundant evidence of this was given in an article writ- 
ten by Rev. J. A. Reed, Pastor of the First Presbyterian 
Church in Springfield, Illinois, and published in Serib- 
ner’s Magazine for July, 1873. Mr. Reed obtained his 
information from various sources, some of which are here 
given. 

Mr. Reed first refers to the testimony of Mr. Noah 


Presidents of the United States. 429 


Brooks, of the New York Tribune, who was on intimate 
terms with the President, so much so that, by invitation, 
he occasionally spent an evening with him, conversing on 
social and religious subjects, and who had the appoint- 
ment of private secretary to the President, to which of- 
fice he would have acceded, had Mr. Lincoln lived. In 
a letter to Mr. Reed, dated New York, December 31, 
1872, he says: 

“In addition to what has appeared from my pen, I 
will state that I had many conversations with Mr. Lin- 
coln, which were more or less of a religious character ; 
and while I never tried to draw any thing like a statement 
of his views from him, yet he freely expressed himself 
to me as having ‘a hope of blessed immortality through 
Jesus Christ.’ His views seemed to settle so naturally 
around the statement, that I considered no other neces- 
sary. His language seemed not that of an inquirer, but 
of one who had a prior settled belief in the fundamental 
doctrines of the christian religion. Once or twice, 
speaking to me of the change which had come upon him, 
he said, while he could not fix any definite time, yet it 
was after he came here, and I am very positive that in 
his own mind he identified it about the time of Willie’s 
death [his son.] He said, too, that after he went to the 
White House he kept up the habit of daily prayer. 
Sometimes, he said, it was only ten words, but those ten 
words he had. Jn many conversations with him, I 
absorbed the firm conviction that Mr. Lincoln was at 
heart a Christian man, believed in the Savior, and was 
seriously considering the step which would formally 
connect him’ with the visible church. Certainly, any 
suggestion as to Mr. Lincoln’s skepticism or infidelity, 


430 Testimonies in Kuvor of Religion and the Bible. 


to me who knew him intimately from 1862 till the time 
of his death, is a monstrous fiction—a shocking per- 
version.” 


The following extract is from Mr. Brooks’ article in 


Harper’s Monthly of July, 1865: “There was some- 
thing touching in his child-like and simple reliance on 
Divine aid, especially when in such extremities as he 
sometimes fell into: then, though prayer and reading the 
Scriptures was his constant habit, he more earnestly 
than ever sought that strength which is promised when 
mortal help faileth. He once said, ‘I have been many 
times driven to my knees by the overwhelming convic- 
tion that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom, 
and that of all about me, seemed insufficient for that day.’ 
At another time he said, ‘I am very sure that if I do not 
go away from here a wiser man, I shall go away a better 
man.’ ”’ 

Mr. Reed next refers to a letter, dated November 15, 
1872, which he received from Rev. Dr. Byron Sunder- 
land of the First Presbyterian Church of Washington City, 
giving an account of a visit made by him and some other 
friends to the President. During that visit, Mr. Lincoln 
spoke at considerable length on the great national crisis, 
and remarked, ‘“‘ What I am to do in the present emer- 
gency, time will determine. I hold myself in my present 
position, and with the authority vested in me, as an 
instrument of Providence. I have my own views and 
purposes. I have my convictions of duty, and my notions 
of what is right tv be done. But I am conscious every 
moment that all I am and all I have is subject to the 


control of a Higher Power, and that Power can use me’ 


or not use me in any manner, and at any time, as in his 


Presidents of the United States. 431 


wisdom and might may be pleasing to Him. Neverthe- 
less, [ am no fatalist. I believe in the supremacy of the 
human conscience, and that men are responsible beings; 
that God has a right to hold them, and will hold them, to 
a strict personal account for the deeds done in the body.” 

Mr, Reed then adduces the testimony of the Rey. Dr. 
Miner, Pastor of the First Baptist Church of Spring- 
field, who was intimately acquainted with Mr. Lincoln, 
and who visited him and his family in Washington pre- 
vious to his death. ‘This testimony in reference to the 
President’s religious sentiments and deportment is 
preserved in the archives of the University of Chicago. 
Dr. Miner sums up his impressions of Mr. Lincoln as 
follows: ‘All that was said during the memorable after- 
noon I spent alone with that great and good man is 
engraven too deeply on my memory ever to be effaced. 
I felt certain of this fact, that if Mr. Lincoln was not 
really an experimental Christian, he was acting like one. 
He was doing his duty manfully, and looking to God for 
help in time of need; and, like the immortal Washington, 
he believed in the efficacy of prayer, and it was his cus- 
tom to read the Scriptures and pray himself.’ 

Mr. Reed then relates an incident which occurred on 
the 4th of March, 1861, as told him by Mrs. Lincoln. She 
said, “‘ Mr. Lincoln wrote the conclusion of his inaugural 
address the morning it was delivered. The family being 
present, he read it to them. He then said he wished to 
be left alone for a short time. The family retired to an 
adjoining room, not however so far distant but that the 
voice of prayer could be distinctly heard. There, closeted 
with God alone, he commended his country’s cause, and 
all dear to him, to God’s providential care; and with a 


432 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


mind calmed with communion with his Father in Heaven, 
he came forth from his retirement ready for duty.” 

Mr. Reed expresses the opinion that Mr. Lincoln’s 
disposition to attend the theater was not so much a fond- 
ness for the play-house as a relief from his mental anx- 
iety, and an escape from the incessant pressure of visitors 
at the White House. “It is a well-known fact,” says 
Dr. Miner, “that he would not have been at the theater 
on that fatal night, but to escape the multitude who were 
that evening pressing into the White House to shake 
hands with him. It has been said that Mrs. Lincoln 
urged her husband to go to the theater against his will. 
This is not true. On the contrary, she tried to persuade 
him not to go, but he insisted. He said, ‘I must have a 
little rest: a large and over-joyed, excited people will 
visit me to-night. My arms are lame by shaking hands 
with the multitude, and the people will almost pull me 
to pieces.’ He went to the theater, not because he was 
interested in the play, but because he was careworn and 
needed quiet and repose: Mrs. Lincoln informs me that 
he seemed to take no notice of what was going on in the 
theater from the time he entered it till the discharge of 
the fatal pistol. She said that the last day he lived was 
the happiest of his life. The very last moments of his 
conscious life was spent in conversation with her about 
his future plans, and what he wanted to do when his 
term of office expired. He said he wanted to visit the 
Holy Land, and see the places hallowed by the footprints 
of the Savior. He was saying there was no city he so 
much desired to see as Jerusalem; and with that word 
half-spoken on his tongue, the bullet of the assassin en- 
tered his brain, and the soul of the great and good 


Presidents of the United States. 433 


President was carried by angels to the New Jerusalem 
above.” 

A lady connected with the Christian Commission had 
several interviews with Mr. Lincoln, consulting him in 
reference to her humane duties. At the close of one of 
these interviews, he said to her: “ Madam, I have formed 
a high opinion of your character; and now, as we are 
alone, [ have a mind to ask you to give me, in brief, 
your idea of what constitutes a true christian.” She 
replied at some length, stating in substance, that, in 
her judgment, “it consisted of a conviction of one’s 
own sinfulness and weakness, and personal need of a 
Savior for strength and support; that views of mere 
doctrine might and would differ; but when one was really 
brought to feel his need of divine help, and to seek by 
the prayer of faith, the aid of the Holy Spirit for 
strength and guidance, it was satisfactory evidence of 
his having been born again.” With deep emotion, Mr. 
Lincoln replied, “If what you have told me is really a 
correct view of this great subject, I think I can say 
with sincerity, that I hope I am a christian. I had 
lived, until my boy Willie died, without realizing fully 
these things. That blow overwhelmed me. It showed 
me my weakness as I had never felt it before; and, if I 
can take what you have stated as a test, I think that I 
can safely say that J know something of that change of 
which you speak ; and I will further add, that it has been 
my intention for some time, at a suitable opportunity, to 
make a public religious profession.” 

In an order for the observance of the Sabbath, he 
said: “The President, commander-in-chief of the army 


37 


434 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


and navy, desires and enjoins the orderly observance of 
the Sabbath by the officers and men in the military and 
naval service. The importance for man and beast of 
the prescribed weekly rest, the sacred rights of Christian 
soldiers and sailors, a becoming deference to the best 
sentiment of a Christian people, and a due regard for the 
Divine will, demand that Sunday labor in the army and 
navy be reduced to the measure of strict necessity.” 

On receiving a copy of the Bible which was presented 
to him, he remarked: “In regard to the Great Book, I 
have only to say, it is the best gift which God has given 
to man. All the good from the Savior of the world is 
communicated through this Book. But for this Book, 
we could not know right from wrong. All those things 
desirable to man are contained init. I return you my 
sincere thanks for this very elegant copy of the Great 
Book of God which you present.” 

On one occasion, an individual was sent to Lincoln by 
one of the Senators, on some state business. During the 
conversation, the individual uttered an oath, when Lin- 
coln remarked to him: “TI thought the Senator had sent 
me a gentleman. I see I am mistaken. ‘There is the 


door, and I bid you good day.” 


ANDREW JOHNSON. 


President Johnson, on a trying occasion, as he called 
on Rev. Dr. Moody to implore the Divine aid, remarked: 
“T believe in Almighty God, and I believe also in the 
Bible.” | 

ULYSSES 8. GRANT. 

Amongst the remarkable men of the nineteenth cen- 

tury, General Grant ranks high. He became the heroic 


Presidents of the United States. 435 


defender of the American Union; and at the close of the 
war was elevated to the presidential chair of the grandest 
republic the sun ever shone upon. Though a warrior, 
his prayer was, “Let us have peace;” and when a na- 
tional difficulty with England had to be settled, he re- 
sorted, not to arms, but to the divine principle of arbi- 
tration. When Bked by the editor of areligious journal 
what message he had to send to the children and youth 
of the United States, as he was about to leave the presi- 
dential chair, he gave a response that is worthy of being 
written in letters of gold, and preserved to the end of time: 

““My advice to Sunday-schools, no matter what their 
denomination, is: Hold fast to the Bible as the sheet 
anchor of your liberties: write its precepts in your 
hearts, and practice them in your lives. ‘To the influence 
of this book are we indebted for all the progress made in 
true civilization; and to this we must look as our guide 
in the future. ‘ Righteousness exalteth a nation; but 
sin is a reproach to any people.’ ” 

In his Thanksgiving Proclamation for 1876, the first 
Centennial of the Republic, General Grant, after speak- 
ing of ‘many material blessings,” remarks: “In addi- 
tion to these favors, accorded to us as individuals, we 
have especially occasion to express our hearty thanks to 
Almighty God that by his providence and guidance our 
Government, established a century ago, has been enabled 
to fulfill the purpose of its founders in offering an asylum 
to the people of every race, securing civil and religious 
liberty to all within its borders, and meting out to every 
individual alike justice and equality before the laws. It 
is, moreover, especially our duty to offer our humble 


436 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


prayers to the Father of all mercies for a continuance of 
his divine favor to us as a nation and as individuals.” 


RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 


President Hayes, in his Thanksgiving Proclamation 
for 1878, Says: 

‘““Kxuberant harvests, productive mines, ample crops 
of staples of trade and manufactures have enriched the 
country. The resources thus furnished to our reviving 
industry and expanding commerce are hastening the day 
when discords and distresses, through the length and 
breadth of the land, will, under the continued favor of 
Providence, have given way to confidence and energy, and 
assured prosperity. Peace with all nations has remained 
unbroken, domestic tranquillity has prevailed, and the 
institutions of liberty and justice, which the wisdom and 
virtue of our fathers established, remain the glory and 
defense of their children. The general prevalence of the 
blessings of health through our wide land has made more 
conspicuous the sufferings and sorrows which the dark 
shadow of pestilence has cast upon a portion of our peo- 
ple. This heavy affliction, even, the divine Ruler has 
tempered to the suffering communities in the universal aid 
and succor which has flowed to their relief, and the 
whole nation may rejoice in the unity of spirit in our 
people by which they cheerfully share one another’s 
burdens.” 

JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

Garfield, a distinguished statesman and general, ren- 
dered various valuable services to his country. He was, 
moreover, a decided christian, and had exalted views of 
religion, as the following extract shows: 


Presidents of the United States. 437 


“No man can understand the history of any nation, 
or of the world, who does not recognize in it the power 
of God, and behold his stately goings forth, as he walks 
among the nations. It is his hand that is rearing the 
vast superstructure of human history, and, though but 
one of the windows were unfinished, like that of the 
Arabian palace, yet all the powers of earth could never 
complete it without the aid of the Divine Architect. To 
employ another figure: the world’s history is a divine 
poem, of which the history of every nation is a canto, 
and of every man a word. Its strains have been pealing 
along down the centuries, and, though there have been 
mingled the discord of roaring cannon and dying men, 
yet to the Christian, Philosopher, and Historian—the 
humble listener—there has been a divine melody run- 
ning through the song, which speaks of hope and haleyon 
days to come. The record of every orphan’s sigh, of 
every widow’s prayer, of every noble deed, of every 
honest heart-throb for the right, is swelling that gentle 
strain ; and when, at last, the great end is attained—when 
the lost image of God is restored to the human soul; 
when the church anthem can be pealed forth without a 
discordant note; then will angels join in the chorus and 
all the sons of God again ‘shout for joy.’ ” 


CHESTER A. ARTHUR. 


Chester A. Arthur, who, as Vice-President, became 
President on the death of Gen. Garfield, said, in his 
Thanksgiving Proclamation for 1884, “‘ The season is nigh 
when it is the yearly wont of this people to observe a 
day appointed for that purpose by the President as an 
especial occasion for thanksgiving unto God;” “ there- 


438 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


fore I recommend that throughout the land the people, 
ceasing from their accustomed occupations, do then keep 
holiday at their several homes, and at their several places 
of worship, with heart and voice, pay reverent acknowl- 
edgment to the Giver of all good for the countless 
blessings wherewith he hath visited this nation.” 


GROVER CLEVELAND. 


President Cleveland, in his Proclamation of 1885, for 
a day of Thanksgiving, says: 

‘*On that day let all secular business be suspended, 
and let the people assemble in their usual places of wor- 
ship, and with prayer and songs of praise devoutly 
testify their gratitude to the Giver of every good and 
perfect gift for all that he has done for us in the year 
that has passed; for our preservation as a united nation 
and for our deliverance from the shock and danger of 
political convulsion; for the blessings of peace and for 
our safety and quiet while wars and rumors of wars have 
agitated and afflicted other nations of the earth; for our 
security against the scourge of pestilence, which in other 
lands has claimed its dead by thousands and filled the 
streets with mournérs; for plenteous crops which reward 
the labor of the husbandman and increase our nation’s 
wealth; and for the contentment throughout our borders 
which follows in the train of prosperity and abundance. 

‘“‘And let there also be on the day thus set apart a 
reunion of families, sanctified and chastened by tender 
memories and associations, and let the social intercourse 
of friends with pleasant reminiscence renew the ties of 
affection and strengthen the bonds of kindly feeling. 

“And let us by no means forget, while we give thanks 


American Statesmen and Patriots. 439 


and enjoy the comforts which have crowned our lives, 
that truly grateful hearts are inclined to deeds of charity, 
and that a kind and thoughtful remembrance of the poor 
will double the pleasures of our condition and render our 
praise and thanksgiving more acceptable in the sight of 
the Lord.” 


AMERICAN STATESMEN AND PATRIOTS. 


SAMUEL ADAMS. 


Samuel Adams has been styled the father of the Ameri- 
can Revolution, inasmuch as he took so active a part in 
organizing the opinions and actions of his countrymen in 
the commencement of the Revolutionary struggle. At 
all times and in all successes, he acknowledged the agency 
of the Divine Being. “The hand of Heaven,” he said, 
‘appears to have led us on to be perhaps humble instru- 
ments and means in the great providential dispensation 
which is completing. Brethren and fellow-countrymen, 
if it was ever granted to mortals to trace the designs of 
Providence and interpret its manifestations in favor of 
its cause, we may, with humility of soul, cry out, ‘ Not 
unto us, not unto us, but to thy name be the praise.’”’ 

In his old age, he wrote a letter to Thomas Paine, in 
regard to his Age of Reason, the last letter, it is said, 
he ever did write. In this letter, he asks, “‘ Do you think 
that your pen, or the pen of any other man, can unchris-: 
tianize the mass of our citizens? or have you hopes of 
corrupting a few of them to assist you in so bad a cause.” 


440 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


FISHER AMES, LL.D. 

Fisher Ames, a prominent American statesman and 
orator, who died in 1808, was a warm friend of the Bible, 
He regretted that it was becoming more and more dis- 
used in schools, and thought that all children should 
daily read it, not only on account of its important truths, 
but for acquiring a purity and power of style in their 
native tongue. He once remarked, “I will hazard the 
assertion, that no man ever did, or ever will, become 
truly eloquent, without being a constant reader of the 
Bible, and an admirer of the purity and sublimity of its 
language.” 

In urging its use in the school-room, he asks, “ Why 
should not the Bible regain the place it once held asa 
school book? Its morals are pure, its examples capti- 
vating and noble. The reverence for the sacred book 
that is thus early impressed, lasts long; and probably, 
if not impressed in infancy, never takes firm hold of the 
mind. One consideration more is important. In no 
book is there so good English, so pure and so elegant; 
and by teaching all the same book, they will speak alike, 
and the Bible will justly remain the standard of language 
as well as of faith.” 

LEWIS CASS. 

General Cass, who was once Secretary of State, and 
who filled other high offices, and who was ever distin- 
guished for sound wisdom and sterling integrity, uttered 
the following strong conviction toward the close of his 
career: “I believe the fate of a republican government 
is indissolubly bound up with the fate of the Christian 
religion; and that a people who reject its holy faith will 


American Statesmen and Patriots. 441 


find themselves the slaves of their own evil passions, and 
of arbitrary power.” 
HENRY CLAY. 

For a period of forty years, Henry Clay was actively 
engaged in all great national movements. As a reasoner, 
he was acute and logical; as an orator, impassioned and 
effective; and as a patriot, pure and upright: in short, 
he stood before his country and the civilized world, as a 
statesman of the first order. On one occasion, when 
offered the candidacy for the office of President, if he 
would only support a certain measure, he made the noble 
reply: “Gentlemen, the measure is wrong; and I would 
rather do right than be President of the United States ;” 
a sentiment worthy of being written in letters of gold, at 
the entrance of every legislative hallinthe Union. And 
from what source did he draw his honest statesmanship 
and pure patriotism? His own declaration will answer 
the question: “I always have had, and always shall 
have, a profound regard for Christianity, the religion of 
my fathers; and for its rise, its usages, and observances.” 
In his advanced age, he made a profession of religion, 
and united with the Protestant Episcopal Church, in 
which he remained to the close of life. 


DE WITT CLINTON. 
De Witt Clinton, United States Senator from New 
York, and a statesman of great influence, was decided in 
his convictions of the excellence of the Christian system. 
He said: “The sanctions of the divine law supply all 
deficiencies, cover the whole area of human action, reach 
every case, punish every sin, and recompense every 
virtue.” ‘The sanctions of religion compose the foun- 


442 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


dations of good government; and the ethics, doctrines, 
and examples furnished by Christ exhibit the best models 
for the laws of opinion.” 


BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 


One of the most remarkable men of the eighteenth cen- 
tury was Dr. Franklin. As a philosopher, he was pro- 
found and practical: his discovery of the identity of 
electricity and lightning has rendered his name immor- 
tal. As a statesman, he was liberal and far-seeing: in 
the formation of American institutions, in which he 
largely aided, he evinced great wisdom and ability. In 
fact, in every department of life, he was distinguished 
for that most valuable article, sound common sense. 
His regard for religion was manifested in a variety of 
ways. 

In the convention for the formation of the Constitu- 
tion of the United States, difficulties occasionally arose. 
On one occasion, he remarked that they had gone back 
to ancient history for models of government, and come 
down to the modern states of Europe, but had found none 
of their constitutions fitted to the condition of the new re- 
public, and he asked how it had happened that they had not 
“ once thought of humbly applying to the Father of lights 
to illuminate our understanding.’ “In the beginning of 
the contest with Great Britain,” he said, “when we were 
sensible of danger, we had daily prayers in this room for 
the Divine protection. Our prayers, sir, were heard, and 
they were graciously answered. All of us who were’ 
engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent 
instances of a superintending Providence in our favor. 
To that kind Providence we owe this happy opportunity 


American Statesmen and Patriots. 443 


of consulting in peace on the means of establishing our 
future national felicity. And have we now forgotten 
that powerful Friend? Or do we imagine we no longer 
need his assistance? I have lived, sir, a long time, and 
the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of 
this truth,—that God governs in the affairs of men. And 
if a sparrow can not fall to the ground without his notice, 
is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? 
We have been assured, sir, in the sacred writings, that 
‘except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that 
build it.”” He closed his remarks by moving “that 
henceforth prayers, imploring the assistance of Heaven, 
and its blessings on our deliberations, be held in this 
assembly every morning before we proceed to business.” 
This motion was seconded and supported by that wise 
Christian statesman, Roger Sherman. 

When in France he was asked the secret of statesman- 
ship; to which he replied: ‘ He who shall introduce into 
public affairs the principles of primitive Christianity, 
will change the face of the world.” 

In a letter written to President Stiles, of Yale Col- 
lege, in 1790, he said: “ Here is my creed. I believe in 
one God, the Creator of the universe: that he governs 
by his providence: that he ought to be worshiped: that 
the most acceptable service-we render him is in doing 
good to his other children: that the soul of man is im- 
mortal, and will be treated with justice in another life 
respecting its conduct in this. These I take to be the 
fundamental points in all sound religion. As to Jesus 
of Nazareth, my opinion of whom you particularly desire, 
I think the system of morals, and his religion, as he left 


444 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


them to us, is the best the world ever saw, or is likely 
to see.” 

On one occasion, Franklin remarked: “A Bible and a 
newspaper in every house, a good school in every dis- 
trict, all studied and appreciated as they merit, are the 
principal support of virtue, morality, and civil liberty.” 

When Paine wrote the first part of his Age of Reason, 
he sent the manuscript to Dr. Franklin for his opinion, 
to which the Doctor replied, “I have read your manu- 
script with some attention. By the argument which it 
contains against a particular Providence, though you 
allow a general Providence, you strike at the foundation 
of all religion. For, without the belief in a Providence 
that takes cognizance of, guards and guides, and may 
favor particular persons, there is no motive to worship a 
Deity, to fear its displeasure, or to pray for its protec- 
tion.” “At present I shall only give you my opinion 
that, though your reasonings are subtle, and may prevail 
with some readers, you will not succeed so as to change 
the general sentiments of mankind on that subject; and 
the consequence of printing this piece will be, a great 
deal of odium drawn upon yourself, mischief to you, and 
no benefit to others: He that spits against the wind 
spits in his own face. But were you to succeed, do you 
imagine any good will be done by it? You yourself may 
find it easy to live a virtuous life without the assistance 
afforded by religion,—you having a clear perception of 
the advantages of virtue and the disadvantages of vice, 
and possessing a strength of resolution sufficient to 
enable you to resist common temptations. But think 
how great a portion of mankind consists of ignorant 
men and women, and of inexperienced, inconsiderate 


American Statesmen and Patriots. 445 
youth of both sexcs, wno have need of the motives of 
religion to restrain them from vice, support their virtue, 
and retain them in the practice of it till it becomes 
habitual, which is the great point for its security. And 
perhaps you are indebted to her originally, that is to 
your religious education, for the habits-of virtue upon 
which you now justly value yourself.” “I would advise 
you, therefore, not to attempt unchaining the tiger, but 
to burn this piece before it is seen by any other person ; 
whereby you will save yourself a great deal of mortifica- 
tion from the enemies it may raise against you, and 
perhaps a good deal of regret and repentance. If men 
are so wicked with religion, what would they be without 
it? I intend this letter itself as a proof of my friend- 
ship, and therefore add no professions to it.” 

During Franklin’s residence in Paris, he was at one 
time in company with some skeptical courtiers who were 
severely denouncing the Bible. They asked the opinion 
of the Doctor. He replied, “I am hardly prepared to 
give a suitable answer, as my mind has been occupied of 
late by the merits of a certain book which I found in one 
of the Paris bookstores, and which I think of rare 
excellence.” ‘The company desired him to read certain 
passages. He consented, and read the prayer of Habak- 
kuk. All were deeply impressed with the grandeur and 
sublimity of the passage, and expressed a desire to know 
the title of the rare book, the name of its author, and if 
the passage read was a specimen of the merits of the 
book. With a smile of triumph, he replied, “This pas- 
sage is from the Bible.” 

In his youth, Franklin read Cotton Mather’s Essays to 
do Good, and in his old age, he said, “All the good I have 


446 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


ever done to my country or my fellow-creatures must be 
ascribed to the impressions produced on my mind by 
perusing that little work in my youth.” 

When he lay on his death-bed, he was visited by a 
young man who had doubts in regard to the truth of the 
Scriptures. Confiding greatly in the Doctor’s judgment, 
he asked his opinion now as he was about to close his 
life. The reply was, “ Young man, my advice to you is, 
that you cultivate an acquaintance with, and a firm 
belief in, the Holy Scriptures: this is your certain 
interest.” 

“His belief in the Bible doctrine of the resurrection 
of the human body is beautifully expressed in the epitaph 
that he prepared to be inscribed on his tombstone: The 
Body of Benjamin Franklin, Printer, (like the cover of 
an old book, its contents torn out, and stript of its let- 
tering and gilding,) lies here food for worms; yet the 
work itself shall not be lost, for it will (as he believed ) 
appear once more in a new and more beautiful edition, 
corrected and amended by The Author. 


JOHN HANCOCK, LL.D. 


John Hancock, President of the second Colonial Con- 
gress, whose name, written in bold characters, stands 
first on the Declaration of Independence, not only re- 
posed an unshaken confidence on the Most High himself, 
but called on his countrymen todo the same. “ Let us,” 
said he, “act the man for our God, and for the cities of 
our God: while we are using the means in our power, 
let us humbly commit our righteous cause to the great 
Lord of the universe, who loveth righteousness and hateth 
iniquity. And, having secured the approbation of our 


American Statesmen and Patriots. 447 


hearts by a faithful and unwearied discharge of our duty 
to our country, let us joyfully leave our concerns in the 
hands of Him who raiseth up and putteth down the em- 
pires and kingdoms of the earth as he pleaseth.” 


-_- 


PATRICK HENRY. 


Patrick Henry, the distinguished statesman and orator, 
whose convincing arguments and eloquent appeals so 
powerfully aided the cause of the American Revolution, 
remarked, a little before his death, to a friend, who found 
him reading the Bible: ‘Here is a book worth more 
than all the other books which -were ever printed; yet it 
is my misfortune never to have, till lately, found time to 
read it with proper attention and feeling.” 

Not long before his death, he remarked, in a letter to 
his daughter: ‘I have heard it said that Deists claimed 
me. The thought pained me more than the appellation 
of Tory; for I consider religion of infinitely higher im- 
portance than politics, and I find much cause to reproach 
myself, that I have lived so long, and given no decided 
public proof of my being a Christian.” 

In his last will he records the high estimate he placed 
on the religion of the Bible: “TI have now disposed of 
all my wordly property to my family. There is one 
thing more I wish I could give them, and that is the 
Christian religion. If they had this, and I had not given 
them one shilling, they would be rich; and if they had 
it not, and I had given them all the world, they would 
be poor.” 

RUFUS KING. 

Rufus King, one of the framers of the American Con- 

stitution, a leading member of the Senate, and once a 


448 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


minister at the Court of St. James, regarded the sanc- 
tions of Christianity as of the highest importance. He 
says: ‘According to the Christian system, men pass 
into a future state of existence when the deeds of their 
life become the subjects of rewards and punishments. 
The moral law rests upon the truth of this doctrine, with- 
out which it has no sufficient sanction. Our laws con- 
stantly refer to this revelation; and, by the oath which 
they prescribe, we appeal to the Supreme Being so to 
deal with us hereafter as we observe the obligations of 
our oaths.” 
GOUVERNEUR MORRIS. 

Gouverneur Morris, a distinguished statesman of the 
American Revolution, and a member of the convention that 
framed the Constitution of the United States, to whose 
pen was committed the final revision of that instrument, 
deemed religion absolutely essential to the public welfare. 

In his inaugural address as first President of the New 
York Historical Society, he says: ‘There must be re- 
ligion: when that ligament is torn, society is disjointed, 
and its members perish.” ‘The most important of all 
lessons from the Scriptures is the denunciation of the 
rulers of every state,that rejects the precepts of religion. 
Those nations are doomed to death who bury in the cor- 
ruption of criminal desire the awful sense of an existing 
God, cast off the consoling hope of immortality, and seek 
refuge from despair in the dreariness of annihiliation.” 

While Gouverneur Morris was a minister to France 
during her revolutionary period, he drew up a Constitu- 
tion for her people, in which it is declared that “ Religion 
is the solid basis of good morals: therefore, education 


OO — EE 


American Statesmen and Patriots. 449 


should teach the precepts of religion on the duties of 
man toward God.” 

- To a French nobleman he wrote: ‘I believe that re- 
ligion is the only solid basis of morals, and that morals 
are the only possible support of free governments.” 


OLIVER P. MORTON. 


During the great struggle for the maintenance of the 
American Union, Oliver Morton, first as Governor of 
Indiana, and afterward as Senator in Congress, displayed 
a patriotism and statesmanship, that have never been 
surpassed in any nation. His views in regard to re- 
ligion were of a most decided character. In a letter 
written to Chaplain Lozier, as he was about leaving New 
York for Europe, he says: ‘“ For the sympathy expressed 
for me by the people at home I am most grateful, and 
you are right when you say you believe that I deeply 
appreciate the prayers which have been offered up by the 
praying friends whom I have left behind. I am no in- 
fidel. J was educated by pious grandparents to a pro- 
fessed belief in Christianity, and taught to reverence 
holy things. I have never fallen into disbelief. The 
Christian gentleman is the noblest and loveliest character 
on earth, for which I entertain the highest respect and 
love. I recognize the hand of Providence in all the 
affairs of men, and believe there is a Divine economy 
which regulates the lives and conduct of nations.” 


DD. PRATT. 


One of America’s noble and honest statesmen was D. 
D. Pratt of Logansport, Indiana. In early life, he was 
38 


450 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


a school-teacher, but by his talents and integrity he soon 
rose to national distinction. He became United States 
Senator and afterward Commissioner of Internal Revenue. 
His death was sudden, but glorious. He was revising 
some of his Personal Recollections, aided by his daugh- 
ter. In these Recollections he refers to an incident that 
occurred while he was yet young. He was requested by 
the cashier of a bank in Indianapolis to carry $20,000 to 
a bank in Cincinnati. This was in 1835. He had to 
travel on horseback. Hundreds of travelers were on 
the road, driving hogs to the Cincinnati market. He 
had to put up at taverns crowded with all kinds of per- 
sons. When near Lawrenceburg, he had a trial of his 
integrity. The following is his own expressive language: 

“For four days, for four watchful nights, I was on that 
miserable road, tormented with the possession of so much 
wealth. I never spent a more unhappy period. There 
was a moment, a supreme and critical one, when the 
voice of the tempter penetrated my ear. It was the old 
tempter that sung in the ear of Eve. It was when I 
reached the crown of those imperial hills that overlook 
the Ohio river when approaching Lawrenceburg from the 
interior. This noble stream was the great artery of 
commerce at that day, before a railroad west of Massa- 
chusetts had been built. What a gay spectacle it pre- 
sented, flashing in the bright sunlight, covered with 
flatboats, with rafts, with gay painted steamers ascend- 
ing and descending, and transporting their passengers in 
brief time to the Gulf of Mexico, the gate-way to all 
parts of the world. I had but to sell my horse and go 
aboard one of these with my treasure, and I was abso- 
lutely beyond the reach of pursuit. There were no 


ee ee ae 


American Statesmen and Patriots. 451 


telegraphs then flashing intelligence by an agency more 
subtle than steam, and far outrunning it: no extradi- 
tion treaties requiring foreign governments to return the 
felon. The world was before me, and at the. age of 
twenty-one, with few ties connecting me with those left 
behind, I was in possession of a fortune for those early 
days. I recall the fact that this thought was a tenant of 
my mind for a moment, and for a moment only. Bless 
God, it found no hospitable lodgment any longer. And 
what think you, gentle reader, were the associate thoughts 
that came to my rescue? Away over rivers and moun- 
tains, a thousand miles distant, in a humble farm-house, 
on a bench, an aged mother reading to her boy from the 
Oracles of God.” 

As he came to this passage in his manuscript, his 
voice choked, and his emotions overcame him. He said 
to his daughter: ‘‘ We will finish this at another time, 
Julia.” | 

He put his head back on his chair, and in a moment 
afterward died without a struggle or a groan. The 
throb that caused his death was the swelling of his heart 
at the memory of his pious mother reading the Bible to 
him half a century before, and the recollection of which 
had for so many years, during youth and manhood, kept 
him from yielding to temptation. What a blessed reward 
that mother had in the life and death of her noble son, 
and what an incentive to all mothers to be faithful in 
teaching their children the Oracles of God. 


WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 


William H. Seward, who was Secretary of State dur- 
ing the sad conflict between the Northern and Southern 


452 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


States of America, and whose keen foresight and supe- 
rior skill were largely instrumental in bringing that con- 
flict to a happy termination, has expressed, in language 
the most unmistakable, his high regard for the christian 
religion. On a certain occasion, he said: 

“Tam not more confident of any truth than I am of 
this, that no republican government can stand that has 
not for its chief support the morality and virtue of the 
people. Iam equally confident that morality and virtue 
can only be maintained by teaching the Christian relig- 
jon. Hence it is that as a magistrate, I deem ita solemn 
duty, on all proper occasions, to bear testimony to the 
sanctions of that religion.” 

On another occasion, he said: ‘The whole hope of 
human progress is suspended on the ever-growing influ- 
ence of the Bible.” | 

At another time, he remarked: “I do not believe 
human society, including not merely a few persons in 
any state, but whole masses of men, ever has attained, or 
ever can attain, a high state of intelligence, virtue, secur- 
ity, liberty, or happiness, without the Holy Scriptures.” 

The following letter, written by Seward to Thurlow 
Weed, on March 26, 1837, shows that his profession 
of religion was sincere: 

“T have to-day, not without fear and trembling, but I 
trust in sincerity and firmness of purpose, discharged a 
duty unknown before. For years past, I have strug- 
gled against prejudices of early education which ren- 
dered religion a mystery, and yet carried about me a 
conviction that it was in reality a simple and beautiful 
system, the profession and practice of which were obvious 
duties. After what, I trust, has been a proper self- 


American Statesmen and Patriots. 458 


examination, I presented myself this morning for baptism, 
and was received into the visible Church, and for the first 
time, enjoyed the Communion Supper. I mention this 
fact, which will be inharmonious with your daily thoughts 
and occupations, because it is an important event in my 
life, and one which, therefore, you should know directly 
from me, instead of hearing it by réport. If, in one of 
those seasons (which seldom occur) when you are alone 
and free from the pressure of immediate care, you re- _ 
member this circumstance, your intimate knowledge of 
my recent experience of human events will, I doubt not, 
enable you to trace the causes and manner of my becom- 
ing more serious than heretofore in regard to religion. 
if that or other course of thought, should lead you to the 
conviction that what I have done is an obvious and proper 
duty devolved upon yourself, as well as me, and all 
others, it would be a source of great happiness to me. 
You will not be likely to fall into the error into which 
others will in respect to myself. But I may as well be 
explicit with you. I profess not to have experienced 
any miraculous change of heart, or to have in any way 
gone through that ordeal of despair so commonly sup- 
posed to be the entrance, and the only entrance, upon 
Christian life. I have always been sensible that I was 
an offender, and a grievous one, against the duty I owed 
to God and my fellow-men. Ihave endeavored now to 
repent, and resolve, with God’s grace, to live more in the 
‘fear of and under the influence of love and gratitude to 
God, and to that end, to study His revelation. I do not 
anticipate that it will make any considerable change in 
my habits of life, but I humbly trust that it will gradu- 
ally elevate and refine my motives of action.” . 


454 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


JOSEPH WARREN. 


Joseph Warren, who fell at Bunker Hill, delivered an 
address to his countrymen in 1772, in which he said: 
“Tf you perform your part, you must have the strongest 
confidence that the same Almighty Being who protected 
your venerable and pious forefathers, who enabled them 
to turn a barren .wilderness into a fruitful field, who so 
often made bare his arm for their salvation, will be still 
mindful of you, their offspring.” Then imploring the 
Divine blessing, he said: ‘May this Almighty Being 
graciously preside in all our councils. May he direct us 
to such measures as he himself will approve, and be 
pleased to bless. May we ever be a people favored of 
God. May our land be a land of liberty, the seat of 
virtue, the asylum of the oppressed, a name and a praise 
in the whole earth, until the last shock of time shall bury 
the empires of the world in one common undistinguished 
ruin.” 

DANIEL WEBSTER. 

Amongst American statesmen, Daniel Webster stands 
pre-eminent. Profound in wisdom, skillful in logie, 
eloquent in speech, and pure in his patriotism, he 
acquired immense influence among politicians of all 
schools. He has been styled, and that most justly, the 
great expounder of the Constitution of his country. 
Speaking of the Sacred Scriptures, he says, “ From the 
time that, at my mother’s feet, or on my father’s knee, I 
first learned to lisp verses from the sacred writings, they 
have been my daily study and vigilant contemplation. 
If there be any thing in my style or thoughts to be com- 
mended, the credit is due to my kind parents in instilling 


American Statesinen and Patriots. 455 


into my mind an early love of the Scriptures.” He 
further says, “‘I have read it through many times: Inow 
make a practice of going through it once a year. It is 
a book of all others for lawyers as well as divines; and I 
pity the man who can not find in it a rich supply of 
thought and rule for conduct.” 

Referring to the, Decalogue, he remarks, ‘ This first 
great commandment teaches man that there is one, and 
only one Greet First Cause,—one, and only one, proper 
Object of human worship. ‘This is the great, the ever- 
fresh, the overflowing fountain of all revealed truth. 
Without it, human life is a desert of no known termina- 
tion on any side, but shut in on all sides by a dark and 
impenetrable horizon. Without the light of this truth, 
man knows nothing of his origin and nothing of his end.” 

In his oration at the Completion of the Bunker Hill 
Monument, speaking of the coming of the Pilgrim 
Fathers to the New World, he says, ‘They brought with 
them a full portion of all the riches of the past, in 
science, in art, in morals, religion and literature. The 
Bible came with them. And it is not to be doubted, that 
to the free and universal reading of the Bible is to be 
ascribed in that age, ascribed in every age, that men 
were much indebted for right views of civil liberty. 
The Bible is a book of faith, and a book of doctrine ; but 
it is also a book which teaches man his own individual 
relia Sntones his own dignity, and his ay with his 
fellow man.’ 

In language the most impressive, Webster thus speaks 
of the vast importance of personal religion: 

‘“‘ Political eminence and professional fame fade away 
and die with all things earthly. Nothing of character is 


456 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


really permanent but virtue and personal worth. These 
remain. Whatever of excellence is wrought into the 
soul itself belongs to both worlds. Real goodness does 
not attach itself merely to this life: it points to another 
world. Political or professional reputation can not last 
forever ; but a conscience void of offense before God and 
man is an inheritance for eternity. Religion, therefore, 
is a necessary and indispensable element in any great 
human character. There is no living without it. Relig- 
ion is the tie that connects man with his Creator, and 
holds him to his throne. If that tie be all sundered, all 
broken, he floats away, a worthless atom in the universe; 
his proper attractions all gone, his destiny thwarted, and 
his whole future nothing but darkness, desolation, and 
death. A man with no sense of religious duty is he 
whom the Scriptures describe, in such terse but terrific 
language, as living ‘without God in the world.’ Such a 
man is out of his proper being, out of the circle of all 
his duties, out of the circle of all his happiness, and 
away, far, far away, from the purposes of his creation.” 

The Christian patriotism of this great statesman is 
shown most forcibly in the following eloquent passage : 

‘If we and our posterity shall be true to the Christian 
religion,—if we and they shall live always in the fear of 
God and shall respect his commandments,—if we and 
they shall maintain just moral sentiments, and such con- 
scientious convictions of duty as shall control the heart 
and life-—we may have the highest hopes of the future 
fortunes of our country; and if we maintain those insti- 
tutions of. government, and that politcal union exceeding 
all praise as much as it exceeds all former examples of 
political association, we may be sure of one thing, that, 


American Statesmen and Patriots. 457 


while our country furnishes materials for a thousand 
masters of the historie art, it will be no topic for a 
Gibbon,—it will have no decline and fall. It will go on 
prospering and to prosper. But if we and our posterity 
neglect religious instruction and authority, violate the 
rules of eternal justice, trifle with the injunctions of 
morality, and recklessly destroy the political constitu- 
tion which holds us together, no man can tell how sudden 
a catastrophe may overwhelm us that shall bury all our 
glory in profound obscurity. If that catastrophe shall 
happen, let it have no history! Let the horrible narrative 
never be written! Let its fate be like that of the lost 
books of Livy, which no human eye shall ever read, or 
the missing Pleiad, of which no man can know more than 
it is lost, and lost forever.” 

A few days before his death, Webster drew up and 
signed the following declaration of his religious faith: 
‘Lord, I believe: help thou mine unbelief.’ Philosoph- 
ical argument, especially that drawn from the vastness of 
the universe, in comparison with the insignificance of this 
globe, has sometimes shaken my reason for the faith 
which is in me; but my heart has always assured and re- 
assured me that the gospel of Jesus-Christ must be a 
divine reality. The sermon on the mount can not be a | 
merely human production. This belief enters into the 
very depth of my conscience. The whole history of man 
proves it.” This strong declaration of the religious 
belief of this illustrious statesman was inscribed by his 
own request on his tombstone at Marshfield, thus show- 
ing that he wished to perpetuate through future ages his 
firm convictions of the truth of the Christian system. 


39 


458 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


JOSEPH A. WRIGHT. 


The Hon. Joseph A. Wright, who had been Governor 
of Indiana and also United States Senator, said, in a 
convention held in New York city when the civil war was 
raging: “Too long has the sentiment of Lord Brougham ' 
been heralded forth, ‘ The schoolmaster is abroad.’ The | 
proper sentiment is The Bible is abroad. Out of the 
Word of God spring the hope, the life, the vitality of the 
nations of the earth, and that Word published without 
note or comment, and freely circulated among the people. 
Its principles underlie all civil institutions and social 
structure. Nations and men must fully recognize God’s 
truth and providence in all their doings and actions. 
Our fathers fully realized it, and therein alone consisted 
their power and strength.” 


EUROPEAN STATESMEN. 


OTTO KH. L. BISMARCK. 


One of the greatest statesmen of modern times is 
Prince Bismarck. His successful efforts for the unifica- 
tion of the states of Germany, and the great influence 
he has exercised in European affairs generally, show that 
he possesses an intellect of the highest order. His 
regard for religion is of the most decided character. A 
speech delivered by him in 1847 evinces a profound con- 
sciousness in his mind that there is an absolute necessity 
of a religious foundation for all true civil government. 
He remarked : 


Kuropean Statesmen. 459 


“Tam of the opinion that the idea of the Christian 
State is as old as the ci devant [former] Holy Roman 
Kmpire, as old as any European State; that is the very 
soil in which those States struck root; and the State 
which would have its permanence insured, which would 
even justify its own existence, must rest on the basis of 
religion. To me, the words ‘by the grace of God,’ 
which Christian potentates put after their names, are no 
empty sound; but therein I see the acknowledgment that 
princes desire to wield the scepter which God has en- 
trusted to them, in accordance with his will. But I can 
only recognize as God’s will that which is revealed in the 
Christian gospel; and I hold that I am justified in call- 
ing that a Christian State which sets itself the task of 
realizing the teaching of Christianity.* If a religious 
basis is recognized for the state at all, that basis, in my 
opinion, can only, be Christianity.” “Let us not, there- 
fore, derogate from Christianity in the eyes of the people 
by showing them that it is not essential for their law- 
givers; let us not deprive them of the comforting assur- 
ance that our legislation has its source in Christianity, 
and that the State aims at realization of Christian teach- 
ing, though it may not always attain that end.” 

Ina Biography of Bismarck, the following quotation 
is given, which shows that he deemed religion necessary 
to the well-being and peace of society, as well as to the 
stability of government: 

‘How, without faith in a revealed religion, in a God 
who wills what is good, in a Supreme Judge, and a future 


*States can realize ‘the teaching of Christianity” by pro- 
tecting those voluntarily engaged in the important work. 


460 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


life, men can live harmoniously, each doing his duty and 
letting every one else do his, I do not understand.” 

In his early life, Bismarck was irreligious ; but marry- 
ing into a religious family, he was so charmed with his 
new and peaceful surroundings, that he became a 
christian. 

HENRY BROUGHAM. 

Few men, during the present century, have distin- 
guished themselves more than Lord Brougham, the Lord 
High Chancellor of England. Asa statesman, he was on 
the side of progress, and made eloquent speeches for 
freedom and right: asa jurist, he was not only success- 
ful, but wrought many reforms in law: as a friend of 
universal education, he was unwearied in his efforts. He 
also gave attention to natural theology, writing a book 
on the subject. He thus speaks of the benevolence of 
the Deity: 

“‘ We are raised by science to an understanding of the 
infinite wisdom and goodness which the Creator has dis- 
played in all his works. Nota step can we take in any. 
direction without perceiving the most extraordinary 
traces of design; and the skill every-where conspicuous 
is calculated in so vast a proportion of instances to pro- 
mote the happiness of living creatures, and especially of 
ourselves, that we feel no hesitation in concluding that, 
if we knew the whole scheme of Providence, every part 
would appear to be in harmony with a plan of absolute 
benevolence. Independently, however, of this most con- 
soling inference, the delight is inexpressible of being able 
to follow the marvelous works of the Great Author of 
nature, and to trace the unbounded power and exquisite 


European Statesmen. 461 


skill which are exhibited by the minutest as well as the 
mightiest parts of his system.’” 

With the preceding sentiments, the following sublime 
hymn, written by Lord Brougham, is in perfect accord: 


“There is a God! all nature cries: 
A thousand tongues proclaim 
His arm almighty, mind all wise, 
And bid each voice in chorus rise 
To magnify his name. 


“Thy name, great Nature's Sire divinei 
Assiduous we adore, 
Rejecting god-heads at whose shrine 
Benighted nations blood and wine 
In vain libations pour. 


“Yon countless worlds in boundless spaec, 
Myriads of miles each hour, 
Their mighty orbs as curious trace 
As the blue circle studs the face 
Of that enameled flower. 


“But thou, too, mad’st that floweret gay 
To glitter in the dawn: 
The hand that fired the lamp of day, 
The blazing comet launched away, 
Painted the velvet lawn. 


“As falls a sparrow to the ground, 
Obedient to thy will, 
By the same laws those globes wheel round, 
Each drawing each, yet all still found 
In one eternal system bound, 
One order to fulfill.” 


CHRISTIAN K. J. BUNSEN. 


Baron Bunsen, a celebrated statesman, philologist, and 


462 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


historian, of Germany, and who for a time was ambas- 
sador at the English Court, and possessed great influence 
there as a foreign diplomatist, had most exalted views 
of the Inspired Volume. His biographer says of him, 
that, “Even when most engaged, he carried on that 
regular study of the Old and New Testaments which 
continued through life.’ He also says, when speaking 
of his residence at Rome, that “ He began trom the first 
daily to read the Scriptures with his wife, whose inquiries 
as to the explanations of various passages he earnestly 
applied his mind to satisfy.” 

This distinguished individual, in referring to the rela- 
tion of the Inspired Volume to international diplomacy, 
says, ‘‘ The Bible is the only cement of nations, and the 
only cement that can bind religious hearts together.” 

In his Bibel Urkunden, [Bible Testimony], Bunsen 
says: “It will be seen more and more as years pass, 
that the full light of science does not eclipse the truth 
of the Bible, but only leads us, by its discoveries, to 
understand the sacred pages aright, and shows more and 
more convincingly their imperishable worth.” 

‘The divine, in the Semitic revelation, lies in its spir- 
itual conceptions. ‘On this account it is, and remains, 
the treasure of humanity; intelligible to the humblest, 
commanding the reverence of the wisest; the only story 
of the origin of our race which we can harmonize with 
our natural conception of God, or with science.” 

In his Philosophy of Human History, Bunsen re- 
marks: 

“The noblest nations have ever believed in an immut- 
able moral order of the world, constituted by Divine 
Wisdom, and regulating the destinies of mankind. The 


Huropean Statesmen. 463 


truly philosophical historian must believe that there is 
an eternal order in the government of the world, to 
which all might and power are to become, and do become, 
subservient; that truth, justice, wisdom, and moderation 
are sure to triumph; and that when the contrary appears 
to be the case, the fault lies in our mistaking the middle 
for the end. There must be a solution for every compli- 
cation, as certainly as a dissonance can not form the 
conclusion of a musical composition. In other words, the 
philosopher, who will understand and interpret history 
must believe that God, not accident, governs the world.” 


EDMUND BURKE. 


For true philosophy, sound statesmanship, and sub- 
lime eloquence, Edmund Burke searcely had a rival. He 
seemed vested, and that in an eminent degree, with all 
those attributes that are the ornament of our nature. His 
strong condemnation of violence and oppression, and his 
bold advocacy of liberal principles in legislation and the 
purest morality in states and empires, entitle him to the 
everlasting gratitude of mankind. The source from 
which he derived his nobleness of character, we have no 
hesitation in saying, was the divine Oracles. He op- 
posed infidelity with great vigor, and paid high eulogies 
on the refining and ennobling influence of the Christian 
religion. Numerous extracts from his writings might be 
given, but a few must suffice. 

“T have read the Bible morning, noon, and night, and 
have ever since been the happier and better man for 
such reading.” 

‘¢We know, and it is our pride to know, that man is 
by his constitution a religious animal; that atheism is 


464 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


against, not only our reason, but our instincts; and that 
it can not prevail long.” 

‘“‘The writers against religion, while they oppose every 
system, are wisely careful neyer to set up any of their 
own.” 

“ Religion is for the man in humble life, and to raise 
his nature, and to put him in mind of astate in which the 
privileges of opulence will cease, when he will be equal 
by nature, and may be more than equal by virtue.” 

“True religion is the foundation of society. When 
that is once shaken by contempt, the whole fabric can 
not be stable or lasting.” 

“We know, and what is better, we feel inwardly, that 
religion is the basis of civil society, and the source of 
all good and of all comfort. In England, we are so con- 
vinced of this, that there is no rust of superstition with 
which the accumulated absurdity of the human mind 
might have crusted it over in the course of ages, that 
iinety nine in a hundred of the people of England would 
not prefer to impiety.” 

“Every sort of moral, every sort of civil, every sort 
of politic institution, aiding the rational and natural ties 
that connect the human understanding and affections to 
the divine, are not more than necessary, in order to 
build up that wonderful structure, man; whose preroga- 
tive it is, to be, in a great degree, a creature of his own 
making; and who, when made as he ought to be made, is 
destined to hold no trivial place in the creation. But 
whenever man is put over men, as the better nature 
ought ever to preside, in that case more particularly, he 
should, as nearly as possible, be approximated to his 
perfection. All persons possessing any portion of power 


Kuropean Statesmen. 465 


ought to be strongly and awfully impressed with an idea 
that they act in trust; and that they are to account for 
their conduct in that trust to the one great Master, 
Author and Founder of society.” 


LORD CHATHAM (WILLIAM PITT). 


Amongst the numerous advocates of truth and right 
who have been the ornament of the British Parliament, 
Lord Chatham. had no superior. His profound reasoning 
and impassioned eloquence commanded universal admi- 
ration. His political principles were pure and elevated ; 
he was the friend of America in her struggle for 
independence; and he ever maintained a high reverence 
for the Christian religion. Amid his incessant labors as 
a statesman, he found time to write a series of letters to 
a nephew attending Cambridge college. In these letters 
instructions are given that have never been surpassed 
for sterling worth. His condemnation of vicious prac- 
tices and his eulogy on religion are most decided and 
truthful. He says: . 

“Tf any thing could have happened to raise you higher 
in my esteem, and to endear you more to me, it is the 
amiable abhorrence you feel for the scene of vice and 
folly, (and of real misery and perdition, under the false 
notion of pleasure and spirit,) which has opened to you 
at your college, and at the same time, the manly, brave, 
generous, and wise resolution and true spirit, with which 
you resisted and: repulsed the first attempts upon a mind 
and heart, I thank God, infinitely too firm and noble, as 
well as too elegant and enlightened, to be in any danger 
of yielding to such contemptible and wretched corrup-_ 
tions. 


466 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


‘“‘T now come to the part of the advice I have to offer 
to you, which most nearly concerns your welfare, and 
upon which every good and honorable purpose of your 
life will assuredly turn; I mean the keeping up in your 
heart the true sentiments of religion. If you are not 
right toward God, you can never be so toward man: 
the noblest sentiment in the human breast is here 
brought to the test. Is gratitude in the number of a 
man’s virtues? If it be, the highest Benefactor demands 
the warmest returns of gratitude, love, and praise: 
Ingratum qui dixerit, omnia dixit. [He who pronounces 
one ungrateful, has said every thing.] If a man wants 
this virtue where there are infinite obligations to excite 
and quicken it, he will be likely to want all others 
toward his fellow-creatures, whose utmost gifts are poor _ 
compared to those he daily receives at the hands of his 
never-failing Almighty Friend. ‘Remember thy Creator 
in the days of thy youth,’ is big with the deepest wis- 
dom. ‘The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom ;’ 
and ‘to depart from evil is understanding.’ This is 
eternally true, whether the wits and rakes of Cambridge 
allow it, or not: nay, I must add of. this religious 
wisdom, ‘Her ways, are ways of pleasantness, and all 
her paths are peace,’ whatever your young gentlemen of 
pleasure think of a tainted health and battered constitu- 
tion. Hold fast, therefore, by this sheet-anchor of 
happiness, Religion: you will often want it in the times 
of most danger—the storms and tempests of life. 
Cherish true religion. Remember the ‘essence of religion 
is, a heart void of offense toward God and man; not 
subtle, speculative opinions, but an active vital principle 
of faith. 


Huropean Statesmen. AGT 


‘Go on, my dear nephew, in the admirable dispositions 
you have toward all that is right and good, and make 
yourself the love and admiration of the world.” 


LORD CHESTERFIELD (PHILIP D. STANHOPE). 

Infidels, in all they have said against religion, have 
never proposed any thing better, or even as good. An 
excellent rebuke was once given by Lord Chesterfield to 
an infidel Jady. 

When at Brussels, he was invited by Voltaire to dine 
with him and the lady. The conversation happening to 
turn upon the affairs of England, the lady remarked, “I 
think, my Lord, that the parliament of England consists 
of five or six hundred of the best informed men in the 
kingdom.” 

To which he replied, “‘ True, madame, they are gener- 
ally supposed to be so.” 

‘What then,” she inquired, ‘can be the reason that 
they tolerate so great an absurdity as the Christian 
religion?” 

His reply was polite, but keen and just: “I suppose, 
madame, it is because they have not been able to substi- 
tute any thing better in its stead: when they can, I do 
not doubt but in their wisdom they will readily adopt 1t.” 


RICHARD COBDEN.* 

Cobden was a great favorite with the masses of the 
English people. He labored for their good in a variety 
of ways. He did much for the cause of national educa- 
tion. After visiting different countries, he published 
several pamphlets, in one of which he asserted England’s 
great mission to be the avoidance of war and the exten- 


468 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


sion of commerce; and toward the close of his life, he 
zealously promulgated his views on national and inter- 
national peace. He spoke strongly in favor of the United 
States government in its determination to preserve the 
Union, as it would tend ultimately to promote a peaceful 
sisterhood of states. 

After the death of Mr. Cobden, his daughter, who was 
very much attached to him, mentioned to Mr. Bright, the 
noble statesman with whom he was so intimate, that her 
father was frequently in the habit of requesting her to 
read to him the Sermon on the Mount; and it seems as 
though he took that as a pattern for his own life; which, 
no doubt, was the primary cause of his bequeathing to 
posterity those grand achievements which will render his 
name immortal—a name that will be revered, not only in 
his own land, but by other nations for whose benefit he 
so incessantly and successfully labored. 


ALEXIS CH. H. C. DE TOCQUEVILLE. 
De Tocqueville, a distinguished French statesman and 
political writer, made a visit to the United States in 
18351, and on his return home published a work eutitled 


Democracy in America, which commanded great atten- 


tion. In this work, he draws the conclusion from what 
he observed, that democracy may be reconciled with re- 
spect for property, deference for rights, safety to freedom, 
and reverence for religion. His high opinion of the 
Bible and religion is candidly expressed as follows: 

“‘ Bible Christianity is the companion of liberty in all 
its conflicts, the cradle of its infancy, and the divine 
Source of its claims.” 

“ Religion is more needed in democratic republics than 


Huropean Statesmen. 469 


in any others. What can be done with a people which 
is its own master, if it be not submissive to the Divinity?” 


WILLIAM E. GLADSTONE. 


Gladstone is one of England’s most distinguished 
statesmen: as prime minister of that great nation he has 
been much admired. His defence of the truth of the 
Bible, and his eulogies on the Christian religion, have 
never been surpassed. One of his utterances is the fol- 
lowing: 

“Whatever [ may think of the pursuits of industry 
and science, and of the triumphs and glories of art, I do 
not mention any of these things as the great specific for 
alleviating the sorrows of human life, and encountering 
the evils which deface the world. If I am asked what is 
the remedy for the deeper sorrows of the human heart— 
what a man should chiefly look to in his progress through 
life, as the power that is to sustain him under trials, and 
enable him manfully to confront his afflictions, I must 
point to something very different—to something which, 
in a well known hymn, is called, ‘The old, old story,’ 
told of in an old, old Book, and taught with an old, old 


teaching, which is the greatest and best gift ever given 


bee 
to mankind.” 

It is related of Mr. Gladstone that he was accustomed 
to exchange a pleasant word with the old man who swept 
the street-crossing near the door of his residence. Miss- 
ing the old man from his post, he learned that he was 
dangerously sick, and with his characteristic kindness of 
heart, he went to visit him. The clergyman of the par- 
ish also was accustomed to visit him; and the old street- 


sweeper said to him, “ Was it not good of Mr. Gladstone 


470 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


to come to see me? And would you believe it, he got 
down on his knees, and made a nice prayer for me?” 
Surely the spectacle of the prime minister of England 
praying for a street-sweeper could not be set down as a 
pharisaic performance to be seen of men. Probably the 
great and good man never dreamed that it would become 
known. 
LAJOS (LOUIS) KOSSUTH. 

Kossuth distinguished himself as a patriot, statesman 
and orator in Hungary, particularly during the Kuropean 
revolutions in 1848. When subsequently he was impris- 
oned, he learned the English language; and after his 
liberation visited England and the United States, where 
his speeches, though delivered in English, commanded 
universal admiration for the brilliancy of their rhetoric 
and the grandeur of their sentiments. The following is 
one of his divine utterances: “The era of Christianity,— 
peace, brotherhood, the Golden Rule as applied to 
governmental matters,—is yet to come; and when it 
comes, then, and then only, will the future of nations be 
sure.” 

; ALPHONSE LAMARTINE. 

Among French statesmen, Lamartine is acknowledged 
one of the most illustrious. After the Revolution of 
1848, he became President of the newly formed Republic, 
and had he remained in the office, the republic might 
have gone on in its career of glory; but Louis Napoleon 
was elected, who re-established the empire. In facts the 
most forcible, and language the most eloquent, Lamartine 
has shown the superiority of Christian nations and 
Christian statesmen over the infidel and irreligious. 
How true is the following: 


Huropean Statesmen. 471 


«“ Open the history of America, the history of England, 
and the history of France: read the great lives, thee great 
deaths, the great martyrdoms, the great words at the 
hour when the ruling thought of life reveals itself in the 
last words of the dying; and compare. 

“Washington and Franklin fought, spoke, suffered, 
always in the name of God, for whom they acted ; al 
the Liberator of America died, confiding to Ga Be 
liberty of the people and his own soul. 

“Sidney, the young martyr of a patriotism guilty of 
nothing but impatience, and who died to expiate his 
country’s dream of liberty, said to his jailer, ‘I rejoice 
that I die innocent toward the king, but a victim resigned 
to the King on high, to whom all life is due.’ The re- 
publicans - Cromwell’ only sought the way of God even 
in the blood of battles. Their politics were their faith: 
their reign, a prayer: their death, a psalm. One hears, 
sees, feels, that God was in all the movements of these 
great peoples. 

‘‘ But cross the sea, traverse the Channel, come to our 
times, open our annals, and listen to the great words of 
the great political actors of the drama of our liberty. 
One would think that God was eclipsed from the soul, 
that his name was unknown in the language. Hist 
will have the air of an atheist when she recounts to pos- 
terity these annihilations rather than deaths of celebrated 
men in the greatest year of France! The victims only 
have a God: the tribune and lictors have none. Look 
at Mirabeau on the bed of death. ‘Crown me with 
flowers,’ said he: ‘intoxicate me with perfumes: let me 
die to the sound of delicious music.’ Not a word of 
God, or of his soul. Sensual philosopher! he desired 


472 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


only supreme sensualism, a last voluptuousness in his 
agony. Contemplate Madame Roland, the  strong- 
hearted woman of the Revolution, on the cart that con- 
veyed her to death. She looked contemptuously on the 
besotted people who killed their prophets and _ sibyls. 
Not a glance toward heaven! Only one word for the 
earth she was quitting: ‘O Liberty!’ Approach the 
dungeon-door of the Girondins. Their last night is a 
banquet: the only hymn the Marseillaise! Follow Ca- 
mille Desmoulins to his execution. A cool and indecent 
pleasantry at the trial, and a long imprecation on the 
road to the guillotine, were the two last thoughts of this 
dying man on the way to the last tribunal. Hear Danton 
on the platform of the scaffold at the distance of a line 
from God and eternity. ‘I have had a good time of it: 
let me go to sleep.’ Then to the executioner: ‘ You 
will show my head to the people: it is worth the trouble.’ 
His faith, annihilation: his last sigh, vanity! Behold 
the Frenchman of this latter age! 

‘What must one think of the religious sentiment of a 
free people whose great figures seem thus to march in 
procession to annihilation, and to whom that terrible min- 
ister, death itself, recalls neither the threatenings nor 
promises of God? ‘The republic of these men without a 
God has quickly been stranded. The liberty won by so 
much heroism and so much genius has not found in 
France a conscience to shelter it, a God to avenge it, a 
people to defend it, against that atheism which has been 
called glory. All ended in a soldier and some apostate 
republicans travestied into courtiers. An atheistic re- 
publicanism can not be heroic. When you terrify it, it 


— 


Huropean Statesmen. 473 


~ bends: when you would buy it, it sells itself. It would 
be very foolish to immolate itself. Who would take any 
heed? The people ungrateful, and God non-existent! 
So finish atheistic revolutions!” 

This patriotic Christian statesman then contesses with 
a sigh that his nation has been the least religious of all 
the nations of Europe, and asks: “Is it because the idea 
of God,—which arises from all the evidences of nature, 
and from the depths of reflection,—being the profoundest 
and weightiest idea of which human intelligence is capa- 
ble, and the French mind being the most rapid, but the 
most superficial, the lightest, the most unreflective of all 
European races, this mind has not the force and severity 
necessary to carry far and long the greatest conception of 
the human understanding.” This question, so full of mean- 
ing, Lamartine does not answer ; but all must see, from its 
very nature, that it is almost, if not altogether, equal to 
an afiirmation. | 

THOMAS B. MACAULAY. 

Few names in English history have equal luster with 
that of Lord Macaulay. larly in life he won great fame 
by his splendid oratory in the house of Parliament. As 
Governor of the, East Indies, he distinguished himself 
by his wise statesmanship. As a historian and essayist, 
he had no superior. Amongst the various eulogies he 
has uttered in regard to religion is the following: 

‘The real security of Christianity is to be found in its 
benevolent morality, in its exquisite adaptation to the 
human heart, in the facility with which its scheme accom- 
modates itself to the capacity of every human intellect, 
in the consolation which it bears to every house of 

40 


474 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


mourning, in the light with which it brightens the great 
mystery of the grave.” } 

The following extracts are from Macaulay’s History of 
England : | 

‘The conversion of the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity 
was the first of a long series of salutary revolutions. It 
is true that the Church had been deeply corrupted both 
by that superstition and by that philosophy against 
which she had long contended, and over which she had at 
last triumphed. She had given a too easy admission to 
doctrines borrowed from the ancient schools, and to rites 
borrowed from the ancient temples. Roman policy and 
Gothic ignorance, Grecian ingenuity and Syrian asceti- 
cism, had contributed to deprave her. Yet she retained 
enough of the sublime theology and benevolent morality 
of her earlier days, to elevate many intellects, and to 
purify many hearts.” 

‘“‘ Learning followed in the train of Christianity. The 
poetry and eloquence of the Augustan age were assidu- 
ously studied in the Anglo-Saxon monasteries.” 

“Tt is remarkable that the two greatest and most 
salutary social revolutions which have taken place in 
Kngland—that revolution which, in the thirteenth cen- 
tury, put an end to the tyranny of nation over nation, 
and that revolution which a few generations later, put an 
end to the property of man in man, were silently and 
imperceptibly effected.” ‘It would be most unjust not 
to acknowledge that the chief agent in these two great 
deliverances was religion.” 


AXEL OXENSTIERNA. 


Count Oxenstierna, an illustrious Swedish statesman, 


Huropean Statesmen. AT5 


after acquiring a liberal education, devoted himself to 
national affairs, which at times were difficult and _per- 
plexing, yet he always succeeded in conducting them 
with skill and prudence. After a life of great activity, 
he retired to privacy, and thus gave his experience: 

“After all my troubles and toilings in the world, I find 
that my private life in the country has afforded me more 
contentment, than ever I met with in all my public 
employments. I have lately applied myself to the study 
of the Bible, wherein all wisdom, and the greatest delights, 
are to be found. I therefore counsel you to make the 
study and practice of the word of God your chief delight; 
as indeed it will be to every soul that savors the truths 
of God, which infinitely excel all worldly things.” 


LOUIS ADOLPHE THIERS. 


Amongst the illustrious. statesmen of France, Theirs 
stands inferior to none. For half a century he was 
famous as a historian, man of letters, statesman, orator, 
and prime minister; and in the last ten years of his life, 
he showed the most splendid statesmanship in bringing 
his country out of its terrible troubles and restoring it to 
its pristine glory. Toward the close of his career, he 
said : 

“JT often invoke that God in whom I am happy to 
believe, who is denied by fools and ignorant people, but 
in whom the enlightened man finds his consolation and 
hope. I have with conviction defended the Christian 
religion as insuring in the highest degree the grandeur 
of France and liberty in its best sense, and believing 
that society without Christianity would fall into a fright- 
ful chaos. Foolish predjudices do not alarm me, and I 


476 Testimonies in Favor of Reliyion and the Bible. 


shall never fear to encounter them when great and noble 
interests are at stake. Materialism is at once a stupidity 
anda danger. For myself, I am a passionate believer in 
religion, and. if I were possessed of more time and 
strength, I would like to confound materialism in the 
name of science and good sense.” 


WILLIAM WILBERFORCE. 


No name in English history shines with a brighter and 
purer luster than that of Wilberforce, the philanthropist 
and christian. His unceasing labors, as a member of the 
British Parliament, for the suppression of the slave-trade 
and slavery, are deserving of all praise. From his work 
entitled a Practical View of Christianity, we make a 
beautiful extract on the advantages of religion: 

“When the pulse beats high, and we are flushed with 
youth, and health, and vigor; when all goes on prosper- 
ously, and success seems almost to anticipate our wishes, 
then we feel not the want of the consolations of religion: 
but when fortune frowns, or friends forsake us; when 
sorrow, or sickness, or old age comes upon us, then 
it is that the superiority of the pleasures of religion is 
este blished over those of dissipation and vanity, which 
are ever apt to fly from us when we are most in want of 
their aid. There is scarcely a more melancholy sight to 
a considerate mind, than that of an old man who isa 
stranger to those only true sources of satisfaction. How 
affecting, and at the same time how disgusting, is it to 
see such a one awkwardly catching at the pleasures of 
his younger years, which are now beyond his reach; or 
feebly attempting to retain them, while they mock his 


endeavors and elude his grasp! To such a one gloomily, . 


Sa 


a 


European Statesmen. 477 


indeed, does the evening of life set in! All is sour and 
cheerless. He can neither look backward with com- 
placency, nor forward with hope; while the aged chris- 
tian, relying on the assured mercy of his Redeemer, can 
calmly reflect that his dismission is at hand; that his re- 
demption draweth nigh. While his strength declines, 
and his faculties decay, he can quietly repose himself on 
the fidelity of God; and at the very entrance of the val- 
ley of the shadow of death, he can lift up an eye, dim, 
perhaps, and feeble, yet occasionally sparkling with hope, 
and confidently looking forward to the near possession 
of his heavenly inheritance, ‘ to those joys which eye hath 
not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the 
heart of man to conceive.’ What striking lessons have 
we had of the precarious tenure of all sublunary posses- 
sions! Wealth, and power, and prosperity, how pecu- 
liarly transitory and uncertain! But religion dispenses 
her choicest cordials in the seasons of exigence, in 
poverty, in exile, in sickness, and in death. 'The essen- 
tial superiority of that support which is derived from 
religion is less felt, at least it is less apparent, when the 
christian is in full possession of riches and splendor, and 
rank, and all the gifts of nature and fortune. But when 
all these are swept away by the rude hand of time, or the 
rough blasts of adversity, the true Christian stands, like 
the glory of the forest, erect and vigorous; stripped, 
indeed, of his summer foliage, but more than ever dis- 
covering to the observing eye, the solid strength of his 
substantial texture.” | 

The dying words of this great statesman were, “ Read 


the Bible! Read the Bible!” 


478 = Testemonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


A FRENCH COUNSELOR. 


After the French Revolution, during which Christian- 
ity was proscribed, it was restored again, in 1802, by an 
act of government; at which time a speech was delivered 
by one of the counselors of state, highly commendatory 
of the Christian Religion, We make a brief extract: 

“Science can never be partaken of but by a small 
number, but by religion one may be instructed without 
being learned. The Natural Religion to which one may 
rise by the effects of a cultivated reason, is merely ab- 
stract and intellectual, and unfit for any people. It is 
reveaied religion which points out all the truths that are 
useful to men who have neither time nor means for labor- 
ious disquisitions, Who, then, would wish to dry up that 
sacred spring of knowledge which diffuses good maxims, 
brings them before the eyes of every individual, and com- 
municates to them that authoritative and popular address, 
without which they would be unknown to the multitude, 
and almost to all men? For want of a religious educa- 
tion, for the last ten years, our children are without any 
ideas of a Divinity, without any notion of what is just and 
unjust: hence arise barbarous manners: hence a people 
become ferocious. One can not but sigh over the lot 
which threatens the present and future generations. 
Alas! what have we gained by deviating from the path 
pointed out to us by our ancestors? What have we 
gained by substituting vain and abstract doctrines for 
the creed which actuated the minds of Turenne, Fenelon, 
and Pascal.” 


Travelers and Voyagers. 479 


TRAVELERS AND VOYAGERS. 


CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 


The fame of Columbus, the discoverer of a new world, 
is extensive as the empire of civilization, and will endure 
to the end of time. His deep penetration, true courage, 
and never failing perseverance, together with his sublime 
faith in an all-wise Providence, give unspeakable grand- 
eur to his mental and moral nature. His exalted views 
of the Christian religion are so finely portrayed by his 
biographer, Washington Irving, that we can not do better 
than give them: 

‘Columbus came, as a religious man, an admiral of 
Christ, to find the continent, not for its material treas- 
ures, but because it held souls which he wished to bring 
as a trophy to the feet of Christ.” “A deep religious 
feeling mingled with his meditations and gave them at 
times a tinge of superstition, but it was of a sublime and 
lofty kind. He looked upon himself as being in the hand 
of Heaven, chosen from among men for the accomplish- 
ment of its high purpose: he read, as he supposed, his 
contemplated discoveries foretold in the mystic revela- 
tions of the prophets. The ends of the earth were to be 
brought together, and all nations and tongues and lan- 
guages united under the banner of the Redeemer. This 
was to be the triumphant consummation of his enterprise, 
bringing the unknown regions of the earth into commun- 
ion with Christian Hurope—carrying the light of the true 
faith into benighted and pagan lands, and gathering their 
countless nations under the holy dominion of the Church. 
One of his principal objects was undoubtedly the propa- 


480 Testimonies in Favor of Religaon and the Bible. 


gation of the Christian faith. Columbus now considered 
himself about to effect this great work—to spread the 
light of revelation to the very ends of the earth, and 
thus to be the instrument of accomplishing one of the 
sublime predictions of Holy Writ. Whenever he made 
any great discovery, he celebrated it by solemn thanks 
to God.. The voice of prayer and melody of praise rose 
from his ship when they first beheld the new world, and 
his first act on landing was to prostrate himself upon the 
earth and return thanksgiving. All his great enterprises 
were undertaken in the name of the Holy Trinity, and 
he partook of the communion before his embarkation. 
His conduct was characterized by the grandeur of his 
views and the magnanimity of his spirit. Instead of 
scouring the newly-found countries, like a grasping ad- 
venturer, eager only for immediate gain, as was too gen- 
eral with contemporaneous discoverers, he sought to 
ascertain their soil and productions, their rivers and 
harbors: he was desirous of colonizing and cultivating 
them, conciliating and civilizing the natives, introducing 
the useful arts, subjecting every thing to the control of 
law, order, and religion, and thus of founding regular 
and prosperous empires.” 

In his will, Columbus enjoins on his son Diego, or 
whoever might inherit after him, “to spare no pains in 
having and maintaining in the island of Hispaniola four 
good professors of theology, to the end and aim of their 
studying and laboring to convert to our holy faith the 
inhabitants of the Indias; and, as in proportion by God’s 
will the revenue of the estate shall increase, in the same 
degree shall the number of teachers and devout persons 


Travelers and Voyagers. 481 


increase, who are to strive to make Christians of the 
“natives.” 
FRIEDRICH H. A. VON HUMBOLDT. 

One of the greatest travelers and most accomplished 
naturalists of modern times was Baron Humboldt. THe 
had also a highly cultivated mind, and was a fine writer. 
The compliments he has paid to the Sacred Writings as 
literary productions are both beautiful and just: 

“As descriptions of nature, the writings of the Old 
Testament are a faithful reflection of the character of the 
country in which they were composed, of the alternations 
of barrenness and fruitfulness, and of the Alpine forests 
by which Palestine was characterized. They describe, 
in their regular succession, the relations of the climate, 
the manners of this people of herdsmen, and their heredi- 
tary aversion to agricultural pursuits. The epic or his- 
torical parts are marked by a graceful simplicity, almost 
more unadorned than those of Herodotus, and most true 
to nature; a point on whith the unanimous testimony of 
modern travelers may be received as conclusive, owing 
to the inconsiderable changes effected, in the course of 
ages, in the manners and habits of a nomadic people.” 

Speaking of the superiority of Hebrew poetry, Hum- 
boldt says: “It is characteristic of it, that, as a reflex 
of monotheism, it always embraces the whole world in its 
unity, comprehending the life of the terrestrial globe, as 
well as the shining regions of space. It dwells less on 
details of phenomena, and loves to contemplate great 
masses. Nature is portrayed, not as self-subsisting or 
glorious in her own beauty, but ever in relation to a 
higher, an overruling, a spiritual Power,” 

4] 


482 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


Referring to the 104th Psalm, he says: ‘We are 
astonished to find in a lyrical poem of such a limited 
compass the whole universe—the heavens and the 
earth—sketched with a few bold touches. ‘This contrast 
and generalization in the conception of natural phenom- 
ena, and the retrospection of an omnipresent, invisible 
Power, which can renew the earth or crumble it to dust, 
constitute a solemn and exalted form of poetic creation.” 

Humboldt thus speaks of resignation, one of the divin- 
est of the virtues: ‘True resignation, which always 
brings with it the confidence that unchangeable Goodness 
will make even the disappointment of our hopes and the 
contradictions of life conducive to some benefit, casts a 
grave but tranquil light over the prospect of even a toil- 
some and troubled life.” 


MUNGO PARK. 


Mungo Park, who traveled extensively, at the close of 
the eighteenth century, in th& unexplored regions of 
Africa, experienced great hardships and difficulties; but 
in the midst of th.~*-*" he relied on the arm of Divine 
Providence. He tells of having been robbed and stripped 
of most of his clothes near a village, and says: 

‘“‘T was five hundred miles from the nearest European 
settlement, yet I was still under the protecting eye of 
that kind Providence who has condescended to call 
himself the stranger’s friend. At this moment, painful 
as my reflections were, the extraordinary beauty of a 
small moss in fructification irresistibly caught my eye. 
I mention this to show from what trifling circumstances the 
mind will sometimes derive consolation; for though the 
whole plant was not larger than the top of one of my fingers, 


Travelers and Voyagers. 483 


I could not contemplate the delicate conformation of its 
roots, leaves, and capsula, without admiration. Can that 
Being, thought I, who planted, watered, and brought to 
perfection, in this obscure part of the world, a thing 
which appears of so small importance, look with uncon- 
cern upon the situation and sufferings of creatures formed 
after hisownimage? Surelynot. Reflections like these 
would not allow me to despair. I started up, and, dis- 
regarding both hunger and fatigue, traveled forward, 
assured that relief was at hand; and I was not disap- 
pointed.” 
WALTER RALEIGH. 

Sir Walter Raleigh was one of England’s remarkable 
characters. He made voyages of discovery to America, 
and was engaged in other public services. He was im- 
prisoned on false charges; and during his imprisonment 
of thirteen years, wrote an excellent History of the 
World. He was finally executed, and in a farewell letter 
to his wife, wrote as follows: | 

‘Love God, and begin betimes. In him you shall find 
true, everlasting and endless comfort When you have 
traveled and wearied yourse: witn all sorts of worldly 
cogitations, you shall sit down by sorrow in the end. 
Teach your son also to serve and fear God whilst he is 
young, that the fear of God may grow up in him. Then 
will God be a husband to you, and a father to him—a 
husband and father that can never be taken from you.” 
“T can say no more: time and death calleth me away. 
The everlasting God, powerful, infinite, and inscrutable 
God Almighty, who is goodness itself, the true light and 
life, keep you and yours, and have mercy upon me, and 
forgive my persecutors and false accusers, and send us 


A484 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. 


to meet in his glorious kingdom. My dear wife, fare- 
well: bless my boy, pray for me, and let my true God 
hold you both in his arms.” 


SCILLERY. 


Scillery, a modern traveler, after journeying the world 
over, and beholding all its glories and enjoying all its 
pleasures, has given utterance to “ thoughts that breathe 
and words that burn” in the following eloquent passage: 

‘‘T have stood on the rough rocks while the wrathful 
billows were foaming at my feet, and the wild sea-mew 
screaming above me; I have climbed the hills of a foreign 
land while the lightnings were playing overhead, and the 
thunder-echoes rolling down the sides of the rattling 
mountains; I have stood on the brink of the volcano, 
and descended into the bowels of the earth through its 
crystal-portaled caverns and grottoes; 1 have clung to 
the quivering masts, and hung upon the dreary shrouds 
while the tempest was howling around the laboring bark ; 
I have seen all descriptions of people, climate and coun- 
try; heard every variety of tongue ; enjoyed every pleas- 
ure that this world can afford; and what have I learned? 
what conclusions have I drawn from the retrospect of 
the whole? That there is no real happiness—no quiet 
resting-place on earth; that all is but a checkered scene 
of sin, and vexation, and folly, and disappointment; and 
I sigh from my soul for the wings of a dove to fly away— 
far, far away from this melancholy world, and be at rest 
in the bosom of my God.” Glorious thoughts! beautiful 
words! but we can be at rest on the bosom of God in 
the present world, if we only confide in his fatherly love. 


Travelers and Voyagers. 485 


HENRY M. STANLEY. 


Stanley, the distinguished African explorer, and com- 
panion and successor of Livingstone, gives his conversion 
to Christianity, as follows: 

“What I wanted, and what I have been endeavoring 
to ask for the poor African, has been the good offices of 
Christians, ever since Livingstone taught me during those 
four months I was with him. In 1871 I went to him as 
prejudiced as the biggest atheist in London. I was there 
away from a worldly world. I saw this solitary old man 
there, and asked myself: Why on earth does he stop 
here? For months after we met I found myself listen- 
ing to him, and wondering at the old man carrying out 
all that was said in the Bible. Little by little his sym- 
pathy for others became contagious. Mine was aroused. 
Seeing his piety, his gentleness, his zeal, his earnestness, 
and how quietly he went about his business, I was con- 
verted by him, although he had not tried to do it.” 


BAYARD TAYLOR. 


Few, if any, individuals have traveled more extensively 
than Bayard Taylor; and yct, amid all his wander- 
ings, he retained his faith in the Christian system. A 
few-months before he died, it was intimated to him that 
objections had been raised against his holding a certain 
office under government, on the ground of his supposed 
infidelity ; to which he replied: ‘Such a charge is en- 
tirely absurd. While I may not be very eminent for my 
piety, and may have been a pretty close student of Ger- 
man philosophy, I am a believer in the Christian religion, 
and as far as the antipodes from any thing like infidelity.” 


NAMES OF INDIVIDUALS REFERRED TO. 


Abbreviations: 
many; 
Adams, Ab., Am., 1744-1818, ..... 405 
Adams, J. Am, , 1735-1826; 20-Pres., 

iets | 402 
Adams, J. Q., Am., "1767-1848; 6th 

Pres., 1825-29 . te 415 
Adams, S., Am., 1722- 180s he 439 
Addison, hea Eng., 1672=1 7190 ee 209 Fon 
Adler, F., Ger., | sy eee ed POG 
Agassiz, io dis R., Switz., 1807-1873. 98 
Allen, K.,Am., 1737-80 soe ee 198 
Ames, F.. Am,, 1758-1808 ......... 440 
Argyle, Duke, ‘Scot., 1823- = 


Aristotle, Greece, B.C. 384-322... 17: 
Arnold, T. , Eng., 1795- LOUD Free ee 102 
Arthur, rn , Am., 1830-1886; 21st 
Pres. ” 1881-85 : 437 
Athenagoras, Greece, ‘flourished 
about163_ ... 184 
Bacon, F. , Eng., 1560- 1626 Agace 343 


Bancroft, G., Am., 1S00-——...... 189 
Barker, a3 Eng., 1806<1875 2. <2: 226 
Barrister, "An English sah eee , 270 
Bautain, L. E. M., Fr. , 1796-1867. . 227 


Beecher, H. W. , Am., 1813-1887.. 3 


Beecher, L., Am., 1775-1863. Eire OF 
Bismarck, 0. i. ee Ger., 1814-—— 4538 


Blackstone, W. “Ene., 1723-1780, . 
Bolingbroke, Lord, Eng. , 1678- 1751 199 
Bonaparte, N., Fr., 1769-1821 


Bowen, F., Ain., I81I——— ....... 103 
Boyle, R “Eng., 1629-1691 .. ..., 347 
Brough: im, H., ’Scot., 1779-1871... 460 
Bryant, Ales Eng., 1715-1804 ....... 276 
Bryant, WaC.; Am*:,-1797-1879.. 367 
Buchanan, J.,° Am., 179141868; 
15th Pres., 1857-61. ee 427 
Buckland, W. , Eng., 1784- “1856 ... 132 
Bulwer, H. 1. £. , Eng., 1804- 1872. 276 
Bunsen, C. K. J., Ger., 1791-1860... 461 
Burke; E., Ire., 1780-1797... 2..... 463 
Burnett, G., Eng., 1643-1715....... 33 
Burns; 8.5 Seot., 1799-1796. . <2. 368 
Butler: d., Bag, 1692-17o2ee Uso. 34 
Byron, G. G., Eng., 1788-1824 ..... 220 
Campbell, A., Irv., 1788-1855 ...-. 104 
Campbell, T., Seot., 1777-1844. .... 369 
Carlyle, T., Scot., 1795-1881....... 277 
Carpenter, W. B., Eng. 5 Ar re 862 
Cass, I, ails 1782- 1866 ... . 440 
Cc halmers, 1 ars ot., 1780- 1847. ... 86 
Channing, \ i. Am , 1780-1842. 39 
Chapin, E. i, Am., 1814-1880..... 47 


Am. for America; Eng., England; Fr., France; Ger., 
Tre., Ireland; Seot., Scotland; Swed., Sweden; Switz., Switzerland. 


Ger- 


Charles V., Ger., 1500-1558. ......-. 340 
Chateaubriand, F. A., Fr., 1769- 
LTB48 5 bo Sa eee eae 228 
Chatham, Lord, Eng. ., 1708-1778... 465 
Chesterfield, Lord, Eng. 1694-1773. 467 
Cheyne, G., Scot., 1671-1742 ...... 863 
Choate, R., Am., 1799-1859. 9.5. 252 
Chubb, T., "Ene. , 1679-1746 ... 199 
Cicero, M. ov , Rome, B: C. 106-43. 174 
Clark, "A, , Ire., 1762-1832 SOU 
Clark, J. F. , Am. , 1810-1888. ae ee 51 
Clarke, = Eng., FE ATIE S. 58 
Claude, J., Fr., 1619-1680 as ae 53 
Claudius, M. , Ger., 1793-1815 -.... 369 
Clay eriss "Am., 1777-1852. ... .-.. 441 
Cleveland, Cr ATne, 1837 ; 22d 
Pres., PROS eS te cee Ne ae 43: 
Clinton, DeW., Am., 1769-1828,... 441 
Cobden, Re, Eng. * 1804-1865. . ... 467 
Coleridge, 8. T., Eng., 1772-1834.. 370 
Collins, W., Eng., Li 20=1, 750 antec 371 
Colton, C. C., Eng., ——-1832..... 282 
Columbus, G. , Italy, 1436-1506 ... 479 
Combe, G., Scot., 1788-1858........ 108 
Cooley, Ll. Ce Am., 18383——. .. 24 
Copernicus, N., Ger. ; 1473-1543. . 1 
Counselor, ‘A French .........,.. 498 
Cousin, V., Fr., 179 jist oe, ce 282 
Cowley, A, Eng , 1618-1667....... 372 
Cowper, , Eng., 1731-1800, ..... 372 
Cuvier, ee Ce “Fr. » —-1828..,. 348 
Dacier, A. L. , Fr, 1654-1721 283 
Dana, dD A Muy 1818-——...... 137 
Darwin, C., Eng., 1809-1882. .... 224 
D’Aubigne, M., Switz., 1794-1872.. 191 
Dayvy;.by, Haig. 1778-18205 eee 
Dawson, J. W., Canada, 182 -——. 109 
Descartes, R., Fr., 1596-1650 .. 349 
DeTocqueville, A., Fr., 1805-1859. 468 
DeWette, W. M.L., Ger. , 1780-1849. 109 
Dewey, O., Am., 1794-1882 ....... 53 
Diek, T., Scot., 1774- O57 Say 3a eee 
Dickens, C., Eng., 1812-1870 >... 332 
Diderot, De iEr,; 719-1 78Ay aa 200 
Dryden, J., Eng., 1631-1700....... 373 
Divighs, ‘T., Ani. 71 702=18 17 estes 110 
Dymond, J.. Kng., 1796-1828.. ... 283 
Emerson, R. W.,:Am., 1803-1882.. 224 
Emmons, E., Am., 1799-1863 144 
Erskine, Lord, Scot., 1750-1823 252 
Everett, E., Am., 1794-1865 ...... 285 
Euler, L., Switz., 1707-1783 ........ 300 


Names of Individuals Referred To. 


Fenelon, F., Fr., 1651-1715........ 56 

Fielding, H., Eng., 1707-1754 .... 334 

Fillmore, M., Am., 180)-1874 ; 138th 
Lees haee het Ge Set Eee ee ee 426 


Foster, R. S., Am., 1820-—— ... . 56 


Franklin, B., Am., 1706-1790 .... 442 
Garfield, J. A., ,Am., 1831-1881; 
20th Pres., PORES HEAL LM 570 436 
Gaussen, L., Switz., 1790-1863 .... 112 
Gibbon, E., Eng., 1737-1794 ...... 200 
Gilfillan, G., Scot., 1813-1878 ..... 57 
Gladstone, W. E., Eng., 1809- . 469 
Goethe, J. W. Von, Ger., 1749-1832. 287 


Goldsmith, O., Ire., 1725-1774..... 373 


Good, J. M., Eng., 1764-1827, ..... 363 

Grant, U. S., Am., 1822-1885; 18th 
Pres., 1869-77 Se tah She ore 434 

Gray, A., Am., 1810- 1888. 18 


Grey, Lady J., Eng., peers 341 


Guizot, BER; So. Pre 1871874 =, 192 
Guyot, A. H., Switz., 1807-1874... 301 
Hale, M., Eng., 1609-1676 naa 
Pat whic tines, 1764-163) ee oie 58 


Hallam, H., Eng., 1777-1859... ... 
Hamilton, A., Am., 1757-1804..... 229 
Hamilton, J., Eng., 1814-1871 .... 
Hamline, L., Am., 1797-1865..... 3 


Hancock, J., Am., 1737-1793 ~..., 446 
Handel, G. T. , Ger., 1684-1759... 329 
Harrison, Ww. H:; Am, 1773-1841; 

9th Pres., 1841. Sapo’ 
Haydn, J., Austria, ‘1732-1809. . 330 
Hayes, fie B., Am., 1822-——; 19th 

Pres., 1877-81. td Sc SE 436 
Hazlitt, W., Eng., 1778-1880... 288 
Hemans, F., Eng., 1794-1885 ..... 374 
Henry, P., A mM LTBE—L 99. oe 447 
Herder, von J. G., Ger., 1744-1803 288 


Herschell,J.F. W.,Eng.. 1792-1871. 6 


Hervey, J., Hing., 1718-1758. 64 
Hitchéock, E., Am., 1793-1861 ... 145 
Hooker, R., Eng., 1553-1600. . 65 
Hooker, W., Amn. 1506-1867. 28 
Hopkins, M. , Am., 1802-1887. .... 114 
Horace, Q. F, , Italy, B. G..69-8....- 179 
Hornblower, i Gest 1777-1864. 258 
Horrocks, is Eng., 1612-1641... 8 
Howitt, W., Eng., 27951879.. ..... 376 
Hugo, Vv. M., FPr., 1802-1885... .. . 288 
Humbolit, F. fi. Ger., 1769-1859. 481 
Hume, D., Scot , ELT] Bk. oe 202 
Huxley, T, He; Encg., 1825-—— ... 203 
Hy#einthe, P., Fr., 1827--—-. _.. 65 
Irving, Washington, Am., 1783- 
RAG CSR 0 419 
Jackson, -A., ‘Am., 1767-1845; 7th 
HePORy Vaseatlre bi ere cs. > ara aleleads « 420 
Jay, J., Am., 1745- 1829 .. 259 
Jelferson, T., Amm., 1743-1 826; ‘8d 
Pres., PSNI Ese on eek: 405 
Jenyns, 5., Eng , 1701-1787... 231 
Jewell, J. aise 1522-1571’. 66 
Johnson, ‘A., Am., 1808-1875; 17th 
Pres., 1865-69 5 ey ge 
Johnson, S., Eng., 1709-1784 ..... 290 
Jones, W., Ene., 1746-1794. Ses OU 
Josephus, Judea, 37-about 98..... 248 


487 


( Joubert, J., Fr., 1754-1824....... . 291 
Jouffroy, I. S., Fr., 1796-1842..... 291 
Keni JAM yO oaLoad. so eee ak 261 
King, R., Am., 1786-1853... ..... 447 
Kingsley, C., Eng., 1819-1875 .... 66 
Kossath, Hungary, F coe 407 
Lactantius, L. C., (flourished 

about 400) BO chide Selo Steen aah i 


Lamartine, ae Er., 1792-1869 .... 470 
Lambert, c AG, Am., fae 67 
La Place, de, P. S., Fr., 1749-1827. 353 


Lardner, D., Ire., 1793-1859 sh gota 10 
Lawyer, rata ONS REN 244 
Lecky, W. Ke Ire., 1838-——.... 197 
Le Clere, J., ie 1657-173 Seuls 


Leechman, Wm., Seot., 1706- 1785. 115 
Leguinia . 204 
Lind, J., Swed., 


184 =188 ee 330 


Linedin, A., Am. 1809-1865; 16th 
Rress, 1861-65 With aa 0 tase 427 
Linnzeus, Kes Swed., 1707-1778. . 20 
Locke, a Eng. + 1635 SLAM cates 354 
Longfellow, H. W., Am., 1807-1882. 377 
Louis, Duke of Orieans’ ei Aes 342 
Lyell, C., Eng., 1797-1875. . . 148 
Lyttleton, Lord, Eng., 1709-1773. . 236 
Macaulay, Lord, Eng., 1800-1859. . 473 


McCulloch, J. R., Scot., 1789-1864. 295 
Madison, J., Am., 1751-1836; 4th 
Pres., 1809-17 ... . 414 


Mann, H., Am., TIOC- 85S 120 
Marshall, J., Am., LiDo=1Sh80no. oe. 264 
Massillon, J. B., Fr., 1663-1742 ... 7 
Maury, M. F., Am., 1806-1873 -... 356 
McCaul, J., Ire., 1807-—— ........ 150 
McCosh, J., Ire., 1810-——........ 116 
McLean, J.. Am, ¥785-1861 ...... 265 
Mili, J.S., Eng., 1806-1873 ........ 205 
Miller, H., Scot., 1802-1856....... 151 
Milton, J., Eng., 1603-1674 . ..... 379 
M’Tivaine, C. P., Am., 1798-18738. 73 
Mitchel, 0. McK., Am.. 1810-1862... 13 
Monod, A., Switz., 1802-1836 ... . 77 
Monroe, J., Am., 1758-1831; 5th 

PP SS shea te eo eh ae eee eee 415 
Montagu, M. W., Eng., 1690-1762.. 296 
Montesquieu, Baron de, Fr., 1689- 

ipa eteEl gh AE ee Seo ee Pe . 266 
Montgomery, J., Eng.. 1771-1854. . 330 
Moore, Geo., Eng., ‘(flourished 

about 1850)’ Die. ee at Re, eee 364 
Moore, T., Ire., 1779-18823) ae 380 
More, H., ’ Eng., 1745-1888 .. SR OE: 
Morris, G. Be eA: 1802-1864 Be eed Sadere 
Morris, G.,- Am., 1752- 1816 . 448 
Morton, OPS Tanne 1823-1877 .... “449 
Miiller, M., Ger. {805 Ae en 298 
Naimbanna (flourished about 

AOU peer sc See oie Pree eet 86 
Newton, a , Eng., 1642-172% oe. 356 
Noah, M. M., Am., 1785-1850... .-. 248 
Nordhoff, C., Am., 1830)-——...... 122 
Nott, E., Am., 1773- S66 ASF 3G e es 123 
Okely, Wm., Eng. ed 

about TROD) eae ee ae ee 
Oxenstierna, A., Swed., 1585-1654. re 4 
Paine, T., Eng., 1736- HAND. Hees 208 


488 Names of Individuals Referred To. 


Paley, W., Eng., 1748-1805 ........ 78 | Stael, A. L. G. N., Fr., 1766-1817... 302 
Park, M., "Scot. 1771-1805 ......,. 482 Stanley, Heo vies “Eng., Ags1= se es 485 
Parker, t., Am., 1810-1860 ........ 80 Steele, i Dy Am., living author. 29 
Parsons, J., Eng., 1705-17 70% oe oes 82 Steele, R., Tre. , 1671-1729. shri: eae ees 805 
Parsons, TT.” Am. ” 1750-1813 aa A 268 Story, J., Am., 1779-1845 sid Ha ee 268 
Phelps, E. 3., Am., 1815-1852 ..... 20 | Strong, ho Am: living author... 86 
Pierve, F., Am., 1804- 1869; 14th Struensee, JH, Gere Lists. 1234 
Pres., Tk ay Ee OR bnen © aah ane 426 Swing, D., Am., 18: ane 128 
Plato, Greece, B. C. 429-347... 180 Talmage, T. DewW., Am., 1832 89 
Plutarch, Greece, 50-120 . 181 Taylor, B., Anis 1825-1879,; cca 485 
1 Rolie ARG ee Am., 1795-1849; 11th Taylor, L., ’Eng., 1787-1865. .. 306 
Pres., 1849-49 A Ges 8 Satie 424 Taylor, “ae Am., 1784-1850; 12th 
Pollok, R. Seot., 1799-1827....... ose Pres., 1849-50 ..... . 425 
Pope, A., Eng., L688-1744 Po ek, 883 Tenney, St, AM. 1827- 1877, eee . 166 
Pratt, D. Pike Am, 1814-18977 G00. 449 | Thiers, L. AS Fr., 197-1 es, 475 
Prior, M., Eng., 1664-1721. .... 28.1 3888 | Tholuck, F. A. G., Ger., 1799-1877 238 
Quincy, Ty Ame, 1772-18645. 24 Thomson, E., Eng., 1810-1870. F238 
Raleigh, Ww. , Eng., 1552-1618... 483 Thomson, J. ‘Scot., 1700-1784 ..... 893 
Ray, i i Eng. , 1627-1705... cae ee, Tollars, E. Vie Aroha een 129 
Renan, JS OAT, 1825 ee 211 Tyler, J., Am., 1790-1862; 10th 
Review, London Quarterly Bey, 310 Presc 1841-45 re ee, nen € ee 423 
Review, North Britiah: 4) ety: 309 Van Buren, M., Am., 1782-1862; 
Richter, J. P. F., Ger., 1768-1825.. 299 8th Pres., 1837-41 Beye oe 421 
Robertson, F; W. , Eng., 1816-1853, 83 Vattel, E., ‘Switz., 4714-1767. 6 269 
Rochester, de Wig "Eng, 1647-1680. 2382 Victoria, Queen, Eng. , 1819-——.. 342 
Rogers, H., Eng., 1814-1877.. ee Oe Warren, H, Ws, Ati.,-1835-——) o> 4g 
Rousseau, ie: 3 Switz., 1712-1778. 216 Warren, J., Am., 1741-1775 ... 454 
Roy, Rammohun, India, between Washington, G:, Am.,, 1732-1799; 
L7iZand 80-1833 % sak ane 186 Ist Pres. jt LISO=075 Stee recs ees 398 
Rushj-B3) Am 5.3 745-1818 864 Watson, R., Eng., 17815188h- ee 92 
Ruskin, ip Eng., 1819-——... . 299 Watts, ie. Eng., 1874-1748. =. BOs 
Sandford, D. K.. Scot., 1798-1833., 301 Wayland, F., Am., 1796-1865...... 129 
Scientific Association, British... 860 Webster, ay Am., "1782-1852... . 454 
Scillery, (flourished about 1830) . 484 Wellington, Duke of, Eng., 1769- 
Seott, 1), , Ene 17471821" 2 ee es LS6 2 sie ie acs ea oe ae 328 
Scott, W., Scot., igeal BB De es eee 385 Wesley, C ,E ng., 1708-1788... ...... 394 
Scott, W., Am., 1786-1866.......... 327 Wesley, J., Ene, Oa) f Ol ee aces 95 
Sedgewick, A. ) Eng. 1785-1873... 164 West, G: Eng., 1705-1756... ET: 
Seelye, . ee Am.. L824-—— ..... 126 Whew ell, W., Eng., 1795-1866 . Fed 
Seldon, i. Eng., 1584-1654. . 268 Westminister Abhey Document.. 312 
Sen, Rabu K. C., India, living Whipple, H. B., Am., 1822-——... 97 
aVritetid whee aot as cokes 187 Whiston, W. , Eng., 1667-1752 see 858 
Seneca, L. A., Rome, B. C.5-A, White, H. K., Eng., 1785-1806..... 23 
Dz Copp h yee OER ee he 182 Whittier, af G., Am., 1807--—— ... 895 
Seward, W. H., Am., 1801-1872.... 451 W ilberforce, W. , Eng., 1759-1833... 476 
Shakspeare, W., Eng., 1564-1616.. 389 Winchell, A. , Am., 1824-——........ 172 
Sheridan, G. A., Am., lecturer— Winslow, Hubbard, Am., 1800- 
a Nig SY y abairieny “epee SS NE oan cen Mit. 327 Sas ae aca ae oe ee . 130 


Sigourney, L. H., Am., 1791-1865. 392 | Witherspoon, J., Scot., 1722-1794.. 131 
Silliman, B. : Am., 1779-1864, .... Pine} Wright. J. At A i. 1810- 1867.:.. 458 


Simpson, M., Am., 1811-1884,..... 85 Wood, re Am., TS10-1S8 etek os 22 
Smith, wl. B- ” Eng ae Dy Youmans, E. L., Am., 1821-1887. __ 29 
Socrates, Greece, Bac 470-400. . . 183 Young, no Eng,, 1684-1765...... . 397 


Spurgeon, C. H., Eng., 1834———, BB Zschokke. J. H. D., Ger., 1771-1848. 308 


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